Heavens Feel
by Unlimited Blade Works
Summary: It was the most awaited game of the last ten years, people lined up for weeks in advance just to get a copy. It was supposed to be the dream the 'Holy Grail' of all games, how did this dream become a nightmare ruled over by a madman? The world of Aincrad drowned in a sea darkness. Carve your legends in Blood and Steel! Everything is on the line. The last dance is about to begin.
1. Chapter 1

**Heavens Feel**

**Chapter One: The Saber**

**Authors Note-**

Well here's the rewrite in all it's roughly 14 500 word glory, that number does include the authors note.

So in case no one guessed Saber was the class that won out in the end. With Assassin coming in a very close second, there was literally two votes between the two by the end. But in the end the ever classic sword wielder won out, can't say I'm to disappointed by that either. Classics are Classics for a reason after all.

As for what some people asked about how will I use Naruto characters things like Ninja and the Hidden Villages well your just going to have to read and find out.

Anyway that's enough of my rambling read and see for yourselves.

Please thank Zimbolical for the Beta.

**Sword Skills and Magic when in use**

**Story Start-**

The red haired Saber was in awe of the battle before her, crimson locks flew around her head every time the two men fighting less than a hundred meters away slammed their weapons against each other creating a shock wave with every blow struck. The woman had seen many battles since her appearance in this world two years ago, but none compared to the one unfolding before her. Each attack was launched with intent to kill from both sides while every parry, side step or block was performed with no wasted motion before the counter attack was sent to the opponent faster than the human eye could see.

The two men fighting were both similar and different at the same time, it was a strange thing to see really. The elder of the two, looking to be in his late thirties early forties, had his sun kissed blond hair matted to his head by sweat, his chest pumping like a bellows even if air wasn't needed in this world. His formerly resplendent white and sliver armour was in ruins, gashes littered every visible surface of the metal, the white cape he had started the battle with had long since been torn to shreds in the fierce fighting. Ice blue eyes were set in an angular face that was locked in a pained grimace, the blond haired man brought his heavily scarred shield in front of him. It looked simple, just an ordinary shield layered with seven skins of Ox hide but the red haired Saber knew it was anything but, in the man's other hand was a simple one-handed sword, it's edge chipped and dulled by the battle.

His opponent was also blond, the same sun kissed hair and Ice blue eyes that spoke of fury and pain. The younger man's armour also looked damaged beyond all repair, the dark blue metal that made up his breast plate and greaves was filled with gashes with some plates missing entirely. The rust-orange metal of his pauldrons, gloves and boots were likewise marked with ware. The two piece red coat that had once adorned the younger man's upper body to the bottom of his chest and his lower body from the hips down was gone, shredded near the beginning of the fight, it's tattered remains still barely clinging to his armour. The huge two handed great sword was held in the younger man's hands was quite obviously his weapon of choice, the blade was as long as the young man was tall and almost glowed almost sliver as the green gem at the centre of the hilt roared with an inner light. They were both of the Saber Class, a Knight and a Warrior that had been called a Hero by some and a Devil by others.

The Warrior charged, a war cry torn from his lips the huge blade of his great sword leading. The Knight immediately raised his shield and pushed the attack away before retaliating with his own strike to the body, the chipped blade of his sword looking to spill his opponent's intestines. The Warrior grimaced and swung his own blade in retaliation pushing the attack away before trying to take the Knight's head off of his shoulders. In return the Knight ducked low and hacked at his opponents feet, the Warrior leapt bringing his sword down from above to split the Knight's head, the elder blond threw his shield up barely diverting the blow as the Warrior landed behind him and turned to face his foe down.

The entire exchange had taken about two seconds.

The Knight went on the offensive first this time, his shield leading in a bashing attack that almost took the Warrior's head off. Causing the younger man to shoulder check the elders charge stopping him dead, the two-handed great sword came down once more to split the elder's skull in one clean blow, but never made it. The chipped and cracked sliver sword in the Knight's hand glowed blue and raced up to deflect the blow forcing it just off course. The Warrior didn't let that stop him following through with the power of the swing the black and orange clad young man spun on the balls of his feet and threw a vicious elbow at the Knight's head. It seemed that the elder of the two blonds hadn't been expecting that attack as the powerful strike met him cleanly on the nose and sent the man's health into the red.

The Warrior smirked and turned again, trying to use as much force as he could while the momentum of the fight was in his favour. The Knight once again proved that he was the Warrior's equal by stopping the slash from the massive two handed blade with his shield, the proceeded to kick his opponent in the chest sending the Warrior back and placing his health into the red zone. The Warrior grimaced and raised his blade above his head once more, the red haired Saber gasped as did the woman at her side. The auburn haired Assassin Class player known as Argo [The Rat] and [Assassin of Black] they knew that stance, the Warrior was going to bet it all on his next strike.

In her heart the woman, known throughout Aincrad as [Saber of Blue], knew that no matter who won the fight they would still lose in one very important way. If the Knight, known as [Saber of White], won this fight he may very well kill his own flesh and blood. While if the Warrior, [Saber of Red], won then he may be forever tortured by questions he would never be able to find an answer to.

Blue light roared from the blade of the Warrior as he charged forward, the great sword bathed in the ethereal light out behind him. The Knight responded, his shield came up and his mouth opened, while Saber of Red couldn't hear what he said it was clear in his purpose. The Knight was activating his greatest weapon, his trump card.

His Noble Phantasm.

"***** ****!" **The Knight yelled, something blazed into existence before him a surge of purple light and dusky gold. The Warrior didn't seem to care and continued his reckless charge, the blue light surrounding his sword grew larger and the younger blond's mouth opened.

"*********!" **The Warrior yelled in return brining his own greatest weapon to bare and swinging it towards the surge of purple light. Blue light roared in return flying from the blade as the Warrior unleashed his own Noble Phantasm.

Regardless of who won, they both lost. The only way to stop that was to stop those two Noble Phantasms from connecting directly, the red haired Saber pulled back her own sword. The blade instantly began glowing with a golden light reminiscent of the sun. She had to stop those attacks from hitting each other head on, it was the only way to stop them from killing each other. Her blade was brought down, the golden light roared towards it's inevitable confrontation.

"*********** ********!" **Saber of Blue screamed, the four strongest of each Class were given a Colour that was decided by the system called a Noble Colour designating the owner as one of the four strongest of their Class As the Noble Phantasms of three of the four strongest Saber Class players came together, the world dissolved into white.

**Two Years Earlier**

Namikaze Naruto liked to consider himself a simple person when it came down to it. He liked mostly simple things, Ramen, games, music, sleeping, nothing to extravagant really. The seventeen year old lived by himself in a small two room apartment, one room for sleeping in, one room for living in and a toilet. The apartment block had a group of showers that anyone could use at the bottom of the complex as well as a laundry matt half a block away.

Naruto had never known his parents, being raised in an orphanage since he was three months old. When he left the matron had confided in him that he had been given up by his parents. Knowing that the blond had no desire to search for them, though if he ever did meet them by some strange coincidence then he would most definitely ask them why they did it, right after punching one, or both, of them in the face. But right now none of that mattered in the slightest. Under the grinning blonds right arm was something he had been wanting for the last few months.

A copy of Heavens Feel: The War for the Holy Grail.

The game was designed by Kayaba Akihiko based off of an old story about seven heroes that fought each other for the Holy Grail that could grant any wish. The game was praised by its Beta testers for having an incredibly in-depth Class System as well as multiple Extra Skills to be picked up. One of the main things that made the Beta testers so exited was the fact that the game balanced all of the Classes exceptionally well meaning that if you wanted the best chance of clearing Instances and Dungeons, not to mention the Floor Boss Battles, you needed to work with other people who were of different Classes to yourself. The fact that all of the different Classes gave a passive buff to those of other Classes when in a Party together was just the icing on the cake.

Another thing that the Beta testers on the Forums could not shut up about was the world the game was set in Aincrad. No one had any idea how huge the world was but it was a one hundred floor monstrosity that every single Beta tester called beautiful and challenging beyond belief. Naruto couldn't wait to test the validity of that statement.

Kayaba Akihiko himself stated that the world would grow and evolve with its players, your reputation in world would affect how NPC's would react to you from things like lowering prices to giving out free goods and even quests. In addition to that all quests had a number of different ways they could be completed changing the ending of the overall quest and the rewards to be gained from it. Naruto couldn't wait to get started, his Nerv-Gear was already plugged in and ready to go, the game was inserted and Naruto watched the countdown intently.

Five seconds.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

"Link Start!"

The world around him dissolved into multi-coloured lights as the blond entered Full Dive before being plunged into darkness and quickly entered his user name and password. A small pulsating light in the distance glowed brighter the second Naruto's user name and password had been entered before vanishing completely. Then a voice spoke, the blond's very body seeming to quiver as the deep bass tone entered his ears.

"**The power sleeps within you, if you give it form it will give you strength."** The voice stated as the light in the distance returned pulsing brighter. **"Someone like you, who has the power to become a Legendry Soul should not remain sleeping. But first you will need a body and a purpose to form it, choose well sleeper." **The voice finished as the world exploded into white and Naruto found himself standing in what looked like an ancient temple seven statues before him, each almost radiating power and authority.

The first was a knight in full armour, sword pointing towards the ceiling looking regal and proud. The blond haired Namikaze pointed at the statue and the ding of a System message accompanied the opening window giving the blond the name of the Class he had been looking at as well as the starting stats.

Saber: The Knight of the Sword. Strength: C, Endurance: C, Agility: E, Mana: E, Luck: E. Major stats Strength and Endurance, Class Weapon: Sword. A good choice for first time MMO players, due to the good mix of Anit-Unit and Anti-Group Sword Skills. Class Perk: Prana Burst- increase damage of each attack in exchange for costing Mana with each strike, this Perk must be activated. Saber Class Players may choose two perks. Having read the manual Naruto was well aware that most Class Only Perks were optional, that being said why would you not take them? They were specifically designed for each class after all in order to give them an edge in battle.

The Beta Testers had first said that the Lancer Class Only Perk Disengagement looked useless for anything for running away at first glance but even that was tailored specifically for Lancers for a very good reason. By using Disengagement a Lancer could raise their Agility and Endurance by a full rank making them faster, more distant to damage and giving them more health. Not only that but due to quite a lot of the Lancer Class Sword Skills gaining more damage the bigger the run up a Lancer Class Player had the skill was perfect for setting up devastating counter attacks.

The blond filed the information about the Saber Class Away before turning to the next statue that piqued his interest, honestly Naruto had already narrowed it down to three Classes with all the research he had done before the game came out. All that was left now was to read up a little more on them right now and make his choice. The blond's finger came to rest on the statue of the man dressed in a strange black outfit wearing a bone white skull mask, another ding accompanied the system window opening.

Assassin: The Death Dealer. Strength: E, Endurance: E, Agility: C, Mana: E, Luck: E. Major stat Agility, Class Weapons: Daggers and Throwing Knives. Assassin's are best for those who favour indirect confrontation over direct. This Class is best used by Players who are used to user Rouges in other MMO's. Class Only Perks: **Presence Concealment- A**llows the Assassin Class to hide almost completely. However unlike the Hiding Skill a user of Presence Concealment cannot be picked up by tracking unless the Tracking Skill is two ranks higher than Presence Concealment.

However even if the Tracking Skill is two ranks higher than Presence Concealment then there is only a 25% chance of the user being picked up. The effectiveness of Presence Concealment does go down when the user draws a weapon in preparation to strike increasing the chance of being picked by by the Tracking Skill to 50%. Passive Support Perk that does not need to be activated.

Subversive Activities: Increases effectiveness and damage of traps. Decreasing the chances of traps being disarmed by 25% (This number does not change even as Subversive Activities levels up) and damage by 25% (Damage does increase as level of Subversive Activities increases).

Assassin Class Players may take two Perks in addition to Presence Concealment in order to make up for the lower base stats of the Assassin Class. Naruto nodded to himself before closing the system window and turning to his final choice Berserker, the statue was that of a giant of a man that towered over the others and seemed to almost emit a feeling of blood-lust. The familiar ding of a system window opening was heard as the blond pointed to the giant.

Berserker: Mad Warrior. Strength: C, Endurance: C, Agility: C, Mana: E, Luck: E. Major stats Strength, Endurance and Agility, Class Weapons: Any. The Berserker Class should only be taken by those who consider themselves to be MMO veterans and are used to most kind of MMO's. Were the first words Naruto read surprising the blond slightly. By only being able to take one Class Specific Perk and one Required Secondary Berserker Class Players may not take any additional Perks, in exchange for this the base stats of the Berserker Class are higher than other Classes.

Class Only Perks: **Mad Enhancement- **Berserker Class Players cannot see their health bar once in battle and sound along with vision are dulled making it hard for allies to tell a Berserker Class Player if they are low on health or not during battle. Required Secondary Perk: Battle Constitution- The Players Speed and Damage will not decrease when their health falls into the red zone. It read simply, Naruto sighed, well that was Berserker off his list. He liked the Class but the more he read about it the more risky it seemed, especially when it was his first time playing, maybe as the second character he created but not the first.

Well that left Saber and Assassin then, they both had their ups and downs but Naruto wasn't exactly used to playing MMO's and while Assassin looked unbelievably badass if played right the blond admitted he probably didn't have the skills just yet. So that meant Saber, cliché though it was. Naruto reached out to the armoured figure once more and the now familiar ding of a system window opening reached his ears, the blond quickly hit the yes option as another window opened in front of him.

'Please pick Perks' it read quite simply, thankfully the first one was a no brainer as Prana Burst was quickly selected leaving Naruto with one more option. The list was actually quite large, at least fifty Perks were on display. The blond was starting to thank his lucky stars that he had chosen to read up on different Perks, because it meant he didn't have to waste his time reading through each and every one since he already knew what he wanted.

Guardian Knight a perk that raised ones Endurance and Luck by one full rank while protecting another. Allowing for a better chance for critical hits, more powerful defence and a greater amount of health while protecting another. While Naruto didn't really plan to play his Saber as a Tank, as his brief experience with other MMO's made it a roll he wasn't particularly fond of, the fact of the matter was he would be partying with a few friends and eventually they would get into a situation where he would be needed to protect them, may as well plan accordingly. Besides if he hated it nothing was stopping him from deleting his first character and making another Saber with Battle Constitution instead, which had been his second choice for a Perk.

Still finding Shikamaru, Choji, Itachi and Sasuke wasn't exactly going to be an easy task. After all the five of them had decided that they wouldn't tell each other their user name or avatar name and instead would have to search for each other, the other part of the agreement stipulated that if they couldn't find each other after the first day they'd share information but until then none of them would know who the others were. Just a stupid game that the five had chosen to play for no real reason other than they could.

Naruto hit the yes button to confirm his selection of Perks before the next system window appeared with a ding. Making the blond raise his eye brows slightly at the words on the screen before him, well that was handy.

'Please choose type of weapon you would like to start with.' The system window read quite clearly listing one-handed sword, two-handed sword, one-handed sword and shield and finally two one-handed swords. Well that was nice of them, giving players a chance to choose what kind of weapon they wanted to start with. It would probably give him a starting Sword Skill for that weapon as well, nice.

They all had their up's and downs, each of which was clearly displayed when one selected the weapon choice. A single one-handed sword was the most balanced having no real weaknesses but at the same time no advantages the others offered. A sword and shield combination offered more defence and was most likely for Tank type players, well at least that was out. Which left Naruto with a two-handed sword or two one-handed swords. From the way they were displayed two one-handed swords was more for a speed build dealing immense damage through countless quick cuts while a two-handed sword was more for a power build dealing damage with a single powerful stroke. Naruto sighed before hitting two-handed sword, the two one-handed swords would probably look amazing but it would likely take a while to get down before he became good at it and right now all the blond wanted to do was jump into the game, besides Naruto figured he could always change weapon builds later.

The blond double tapped the two-handed sword option to confirm it, the system window closed then another opened.

'Class: Saber, Perks: Prana Burst & Guardian Knight, Weapon: Two-handed Sword. Yes/No' the window asked Naruto hit the yes button and entered another menu to customise the avatars looks, just wanting to get everything over with the blond used the data already stored on the Nerv-Gear to recreate his body type and changing the face slightly and turning his eyes to violet instead of blue and getting rid of his whisker marks but keeping his sun kissed blond hair. Not much of a change really but it might fool one of his friends if they took just a quick glance at him. Naruto hit yes on the final system window and the world faded to black and the Knight from the statue stood before him clad in resplendent silver armour sword held in two hands before him.

"**THOU ART I... AND I AM THOU. FROM THE SEA OF THY SOUL I COME...THOUST HAVE GIVEN YOUR POWER FORM AND SO I SHALL LEND THOU STRENGTH."** The Knight declared, his voice strong and confident before fading away before Naruto's very eyes as everything turned black again the small light once more pulsing in the distance. The voice from before returned once more, every word shaking Naruto's body to it's very core.

"**A nondescript Legendary Soul who's story hasn't even been written yet fighting for no one but himself, I look forward to your battles." **The voice stated, it seemed to sound exited by the battles it had just mentioned. Armour began to form on Naruto's body, nothing much just a leather breast plate normal boots and other than that completely normal cotton clothing. A long bronze blade and scabbard attached themselves to the blonds back, the weight feeling almost normal and expected for some strange reason. The sound of breaking glass heralded a small light breaking through the darkness.

"**Knight of the Sword, I wish you well." ** The voice finished fading away, somehow Naruto knew he would hear it again somewhere down the line. The light pulsed brighter eating away at the edges of the darkness as another voice, this one distinctly feminine began to speak.

"**Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill."**

"**Repeat five times. And then simply shatter!"**

"**A base of blood and steel."**

"**A foundation of stone and the Archduke of Contacts."**

"**The truth of the Earth, Gaia, calls out."**

"**A wall to block the wind."**

"**The gates in all four directions close."**

"**From the Crown come forth and follow the forked road to the kingdom."**

"**I here by propose."**

"**Gaia shall create your body and your sword shall be her fate!"**

"**Abiding by the summons of the Holy Grail."**

"**If thou would obey this will and reason, make your oath here!"**

"**I here by swear that I shall become all that is good in the Eternal World."**

"**You, who shall become the one to lay out all of the evils of the Eternal World!"**

"**Thou, clad within the great trinity come forth into the world!"**

"**GUARDIAN OF THE HEAVENLY BALANCE!"**

Light flooded his vision vanishing the darkness in a sea of white and multi-coloured glows. Feeling came back to the blonds feet first as his boots hit the cobblestones of a newly forming city around him. Right as everything came together at once and Naruto found himself standing in the centre of a huge city. A black palace before him as people milled about each heading in a different direction off into the back streets of the maze of a city that looked like it had been taken straight out of medieval Europe, the ding of a system window opening interrupted Naruto's sightseeing. The blond looked down and smiled at the window, first quest for the win! The window read quite clearly.

New Quest!

Taking Your First Steps

Go to the centre of the Black Iron Palace to learn more about the Saber Class and Sword Skills!

There wasn't a yes or no selection so the quest had to be automatic, thankfully it also came with a small map down the bottom showing that the building before him was the Black Iron Palace mentioned. Which the blond found very convenient, still as much as he wanted to go looking around the city Naruto wanted to learn more and get into the quest a whole lot more.

The blond took off at a jog, heading into the Black Iron Palace. As things turned out he didn't have to go very far in. That being said simply walking inside of the Palace made Naruto appreciate the level of detail and time that must have gone into crafting just this one building alone. Honestly it made him wonder just how much time and effort had gone into the development cycle of this game, because if everything was as impressive as the Black Iron Palace was then it was time, and money, very well spent.

The NPC he had to talk to in question was just off of the main room and was a tall man with greying hair in a steel suit of armour, a huge two-handed sword on his back that was clearly better than the one strapped to Naruto's own back. He was standing before a series of rings that had another NPC or Player inside them learning how to perform a Sword Skill. The glowing gold exclamation mark over the man's head made it very clear who he needed to talk to, the blond haired Saber approached his NPC counterpart. The NPC's steel grey eyes latched onto him like a hawk as a smile spread across the man's face and he began to let out a booming laugh.

"I see a new blood who's just taking his first steps." The NPC recited the Quest Specific dialogue in a deep bass tone. "Nice to see you new blood, now jump in the ring and try swinging that sword of yours a bit," The NPC commanded as a small ding brought Naruto's attention to the top left of his vision where a small system window was sitting telling him to follow the command and get into an empty ring before hitting the dummy inside a few times.

The blond jumped inside the nearest ring, clearing the small fence around it in one vaulting jump. Standing before him in the centre of the training ring was a mannequin that had been made in the likeness of a human except it was standing on it's own two legs and seemingly moving about from foot to foot. A ding announced another system window opening directly before Naruto's eyes which read quite simply 'Attack the Effigy', the blond shrugged drawing the two-handed sword off of his back the weight unfamiliar but somewhat comforting.

The moment the bronze blade was drawn Naruto's vision changed, the targeting reticule over the Effigy changed from blue to red while his health came into better focus, the human like mannequin moved into a defensive stance arms crossed over it's chest. Naruto took on his own stance, the two-handed sword held before him in both hands the point of the blade pointed at the Effigy's head.

The blond charged forward, two-handed blade coming down in an almost clumsy chop at the Effigy's head. The human like construct raised it's arms and blocked the blow some wood flying away from the point of impact. Naruto dragged down on the weight of the sword and drew the two-handed blade back before thrusting forward once more in an attempt to impale the wooden puppet. Once more the Effigy moved, arms coming down and batting the blade away before it could sink into the puppets abdomen. The blond was forced to spin with the force of the strike completing a full three hundred and sixty degree turn the slashing at the Effigy's mid-section. The wooden puppet in the likeness of a man jumped back hands coming up near it's head in a near approximation of a boxer. A ding announced the return of a system window and with it Naruto's next instructions.

'Nice work on the attack!' The window congratulated before the words changed and Naruto could almost hear the sly tone in them. 'Now how's your defence?' He had just enough time to read through the system message when the Effigy went on the attack, the wooden approximation of a human swung out with a low kick at Naruto's legs the blond responded by bringing down his sword in a clumsy block and fending off the first blow. Unfortunately he didn't have much time for more than defence from that point on, the Effigy struck high and Naruto swung his blade up knocking the punch off course. However being so unused to his weapon caused the blond haired Namikaze to overbalance with his block and eat a wooden foot to the chest for his trouble.

Naruto was pushed back, the blow staggering him slightly. But the Effigy didn't care, rushing forward to try and split the blonds head with a sharp kick that bounced off the flat side of the two-handed sword in Naruto's hands as he brought the blade up in a desperate block. It was clumsy and desperate but it worked allowing the blond haired Namikaze to deflect the blow if not cleanly. The Effigy moved back slightly and lowered it's stance getting ready to charge, the world seemed to slow down the characters around Naruto turning grey and stopping moving all together. A ding announced a system window opening containing new instructions about the Quest.

'Finish the fight with the basic charging Sword Skill: Crushing Blow!' The window stated clearly a picture below showing Naruto how he needed to stand in order to execute the attack. The blond put his left foot forward, bending the knee and raised the bronze two-handed sword above his own head the almost copper coloured metal began to glow with a purple light as the sword skill activated. Colour returned to the world again as did sound and Naruto found his body rushing forward as the Sword Skill activated and sent him barrelling towards his enemy.

The Effigy didn't have time to react as the two-handed blade cut straight down, cleaving the wooden puppet from head to groin in one clean move as the puppet in the likeness of a human exploded into countless colourful pixels. The system window automatically updated itself telling the blond to go and report to the NPC he had earlier. Naruto fumbled for a few seconds before managing to get the two-handed sword onto his back then vaulted the small wooden fence of the training ring as the Effigy came back into being with the sound of a bell, the wooden construct stood motionless waiting for the next person to challenge it.

"Ah new blood!" The NPC called out cheerfully as if he had just been given an amazing present. "Good job, though I have seen better, good job! Come back if you want some work!" The NPC finished with a smile as a ding announced the arrival of another system window.

'Quest Complete: Taking Your First Steps'

'Turn Quest In?'

'Yes/No'

Naruto quickly hit the yes button completing the quest and giving him just enough EXP to push him up a level causing another system window to open, nice of them to explain everything but that didn't change the fact it could be damn annoying to.

'You have Levelled UP!' The system message read clearly. 'Every level up gives you more health and 10 status points to assign to your Strength, Endurance, Agility, Mana or Luck. You can gain more status points by either levelling up again or completing quests with status point rewards. Each rank of Strength, Endurance, Agility, Mana and finally Luck requires one hundred status points invested into it in order to advance to the next level. An example would be Mana a Player with E ranked Mana would be required to put 100 status points into it in order to advance to D rank Mana, this stays the same for all Stats. As a Saber Class Player your major Stats are Strength and Endurance but don't neglect the others or you are in for a world of hurt!' The system message advised Naruto smiled investing all of his stat points of the first level into Strength, he would work the others later. A new quest popped up in a system window and Naruto smiled, time to get started!

It was almost five hours later when a rather exhausted, but very much enthused, Namikaze Naruto tramped back into Starting City from the surrounding area. To be perfectly honest while Naruto was indeed amazed at the level of detail that had gone into making this world for now, unlike many others, he chose to ignore it and instead focused on grinding out the early quests and levelling as much as possible. It was simple, well at least it was in Naruto's opinion and while he wasn't a hardcore MMO player like the Beta testers for Heavens Feel the blond did have a fairly decent guess about what the Casual MMO Players were going to do. Namely, for the first three to four hours or so of their game they would ignore the choice of Questing and spend time ogling the architecture and exploring the city. While that's all well and good Naruto knew that the hunting grounds for the early Quests would be choked once the casual players stopped just looking around.

From what Naruto had managed to gather about Heavens Feel from the Beta testers on message boards was that the choking of Questing areas would be a temporary thing. For the first three levels of Aincrad the game world is still trying to teach you things. The first Floor choking was possible since it was designed to get players used to doing Solo Quests, you could find a few two person Quests but that was about the limit. On the Second Floor more Group Quests meant for one party were available letting players get used to working in a team as well as introducing 'World Events.' Area specific quests that anyone could join just by entering the area it was being held in.

The 'World Event' would be added to the map automatically when they started as well as alerting every player in the area via a system message. Each player that joined the 'World Event' by entering the area it was taking place in the were awarded experience and items based on how much they contributed to the overall goal. Finally the Third Floor was where the dungeons finally made an appearance getting two teams of Six, or more, to work together to clear them. Once Floor Four hit you could find Solo Quests, Group Quests, World Events and even Dungeons in abundance so the chances of any area becoming choked for XP was slim to none at that point, which was something Naruto actually felt quite thankful for.

Still while knowing that the chances of people choking an area for Quest probably wouldn't happen at later floors the fact of the matter was that once the Casual MMO Players were done sightseeing it would happen on this floor. When that occurred Naruto would like to be leaving Starting City and on his way to the next area hopefully avoiding the choking all together. The blond was a level four and, if his memory served him correctly, the next Questing area was Horunka Village which was a level five area so he should be able to head there after handing in another two or three quests. After that the quest chain he was on should take him to Horunka Village before really cutting him loose and letting Naruto explore the world.

The final goal of the First Floor was Tolbana Town, the town closest to the first floor Labyrinth that led up to floor two. It was also the level nine to ten questing area, level ten was, at least roughly, the level cap for the first Floor of Aincrad. While it was true you could earn experience by killing monsters after level ten it got you barely any experience and the quests weren't much better so from a practical standpoint level ten was the limit. Once you hit level ten you were best off going into the Labyrinth and trying to map as much as possible in order to make it to floor two faster.

The blond looked down and saw his body glowing, well that was strange. Naruto thought to himself before he vanished, immediately reappearing with ten thousand others at the centre of the plaza of the first floor. Most of the others around him looking around the same as he was, the same stupid and surprised looks on all of their faces. The sky turned red like blood as thousands of interlocking red messages blotted out the sky itself. The whole world seemed to glow in a blood soaked light as a huge figure descended, crimson appeared to be the colour of the day considering that even the huge humanoid creature was covered in a robe dyed the same colour as the sky. Shadows concealed its face setting Naruto slightly on edge, something was wrong he could feel it in his gut.

"**Welcome Players to my world."** The Hollow Avatar stated, voice deep and powerful. Naruto noted others like himself looking around in confusion. Was this guy a GM or something? Either way it was in bad taste to remind Players that he was essentially a God here, it really took away from the whole immersion experience the game had up until that moment.

"**My name is** **Kayaba Akihiko and as of this moment I am the only one capable of controlling this world."** The Avatar stated, Naruto just felt even worse hearing those worlds. Something was wrong, something was very, very, wrong.

"**Many of you have noticed that there is no longer a [Log Out] function in the System Menu. This is not a mistake but rather a very important part of [Heavens Feel: The War for the Holy Grail]!"** Kayaba continued, his voice was full of determination and something else, Naruto could almost call it wistfulness. **"Until the Players reach the very top of Aincrad and gain possession of the Holy Grail none can leave." **The crimson Avatar continued his voice taking on a tone of melancholy. **"Any attempt to dismantle the Nerv Gear from the outside, disconnect you from the system or turn the machine off for more than a few minutes is strictly forbidden. If anyone attempts this then the Nerv Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse and destroy your brain, killing the Player instantly." **It was a simple statement that froze every Player in the plaza, most of which were looking up at the Hollow Avatar with undisguised horror and some in sick fascination.

"**This information has been released to every person through the mass-media including the government. So there is no more need to worry the chances of any of the above happening is close to non-existent any more. However a few people have disregarded the above rules and as such 213 Players have exited the game and the real world forever." **Another statement that seemed to lack any form of empathy from the giant before them.

"**In a moment the authorities will use the two hours I have given them to transport all of you to hospitals and specialist care. So do not worry, concentrate on clearing the game as quickly as you can."** Someone from the crowd began to scream at the Hollow Avatar but Naruto could hear none of it, his ears seemed to no longer hear anything but the words of the giant before him.

"**But I ask you all to understand." **Kayaba continued ignoring the shouting. **"Heavens Feel is no longer just a game, but a war for all of you. Should your HP reach zero the Nerv Gear will emit it's electromagnetic pulse and kill you, for all Players this is now reality. In order to prove this to you I sent all of you a gift, it should be arriving now."** He continued, at the Hollow Avatars words a system window came into existence as a mirror dropped into Naruto's hand. The blond threw a quick look down at the mirrors reflective glass before he, and all the Avatars around him, were engulfed in light. It took less than a second before it died down but Naruto noticed the changes when he looked in the mirror immediately, his whisker marks were back as were his blue eyes the only small changes he had made in order to pretend to hide from his friends.

A small part of Naruto's brain registered that the sex ratio had changed dramatically as all Players real forms were revealed. Well that was certainly disconcerting, and a little off putting actually. Especially considering there was a fat man in a pink tutu next to him, thankfully Kayaba began speaking again taking Naruto's mind away from the horror next to him.

"**You are most probably wondering why I am doing this." **The Hollow Avatar stated. **"Am I ransoming you? Is this a terrorist attack? It is none of these things. My goal...well consider that one of the many mysteries of this world you will have to solve. Now GO! You will need both friends and allies to survive. Perfect your skill with your chosen weapons, learn new Sword Skills and powerful Magic to supplement your strength. Gain unique and Powerful Noble Phantasms to further increase your chances of winning and survival as you unravel the mysteries of this world! Players I will not wish you luck, for it is skill and courage that will win the day! Players, SEEK THE TRUTH!"** The Hollow Avatar finished before fading away along with the crimson sky. Everything was silent for around a second, then someone screamed and pandemonium broke loose people running in every direction no one knew where they were going. Naruto raced to hand in his next quest, finish this Quest then head out to the village away from the populous and plan his next move.

His friends, they would meet somewhere down the line. But one thing was for sure, until he met them.

He would not die!

**XXX  
**

In the two months following the beginning of the death game almost two thousand people died. For most it was suicide, other simple bad luck, either way it didn't really matter as they were still dead. When things started settling down again people began to think about what had been said and what was really going on in the world. Most of these people came to the conclusion that they needed to get to floor one hundred as fast as possible and became what would later be known as Clearers. After two hard months of levelling up and searching for the boss room has finally be found, now it was all a matter of time until the boss is attacked and the next floor reached.

The look of Namikaze Naruto hadn't changed much in the two months since the death game started, though if anyone who knew him from before had seen him they would have remarked that he was grimmer than he used to be. Bronze armour and leather armour were the kinds that the blond was favouring at that moment. A bronze chest plate, pauldrons while leather gloves and armour covered the rest of his arms. Bronze greaves with normal leather boots were on his feet, Iron was the best metal on the first floor and so far Naruto hadn't been able to find Iron Armour so he was making do with bronze. That being said the blond haired Namikaze had been able to pick up an Iron Claymore, it was a huge two-handed blade much like Naruto's old bronze one. A simple leather wrapped hilt that came to a straight iron cross guard which led onto the blade itself which was almost as long as Naruto himself was tall.

The after almost a month of use the Iron sword now fit in Naruto's hand like an old friend, it was interest in getting to the next floor that had the blond where he was at that exact moment. A small amphitheatre waiting for the person who had called this Raid meeting to come out and get to the point. A girl waited at his side, it had taken the favour she owed him to come along but having someone to watch his back was worth it.

The girl in question was an auburn haired Assassin Class player known as Argo [The Rat] around the first floor, one of the best, and only, Information Brokers in Heavens Feel. She owed him a favour after some idiot pulled more Mobs than he could handle and ran away accidentally running past Argo as he did so and inadvertently transferring the agro over to the Assassin Class Information Broker. Naruto had been passing through at the time and helped out, now she owed him a favour that she would be paying off by being his partner in this Boss Battle.

"I hate you so much right now." Argo stated in a dry tone, Naruto just raised up one eyebrow in muted surprise at her declaration.

"I thought you didn't indulge in things that could be bad for business Argo." The blond replied in an equally dry tone making the Information Broker scrunch her face up in distaste.

"I'm starting to seriously reconsider my position on that front." She replied almost scathingly to which Naruto himself gave a small chuckle.

"Any idea on when this Diabel is going to show?" The blond asked, Argo threw a quick look over the assembled players before spotting who she was looking for.

"He's already here," The auburn haired girl responded while looking at a blue haired man. "But he's waiting for more people I think." Argo added after a moment getting a nod from her companion in return.

"Anyone I should be aware of?" Naruto asked, Argo would charge money for almost anything but she was normally good when it came to tell people what they needed to know about a situation. She would charge for things that were worth charging for, or that you just wanted to know, but she was normally good about telling people what they needed to know. Argo seemed conflicted for a moment before sighing and nodding to herself.

"Yeah, Diabel isn't as much of a White Knight as he makes himself out to be. Keep your wits about you Seig." She replied in a tone that let Naruto know he wouldn't be getting anything else out of her. The blond sighed, so the guy had ulterior motives why couldn't anyone ever be simple. Then again that might just take all the fun out of life so maybe it all equalled out in the end.

"Thanks for the heads up," Naruto responded keeping a careful eye on the blue haired Saber as Diabel went towards the centre of the amphitheatre and turned to address the crowd.

"Well I think that's enough time spent waiting for people," Diabel stated smiling out over the assembled groups. Wow if Naruto didn't know better he would swear that Diabel was every bit of a good person as he was trying to appear right then.

"Alright for those of you who don't know my name is Diabel and I'm a Saber Class Player, I consider myself to be a knight." The blue haired man finished with a laugh. "At any rate, we've found the Bosses Room and according to the Guide Book the First Floor Boss is Illfang the Kobold Lord and his weapons are an Axe and Shield combination followed by a Talwar when he gets down to 30% health. Illfang spawns with three Ruin Kobold Sentinels as Support when we first go in, followed by another three spawning every time we deplete one of his four health bars, giving a grand total of twelve Sentinels spawned by the time the battle ends." Diabel finished looking out over the assembled players.

"The plans simple, we divide up into as many full Parties as we can. Half of those Parties will be attacking Illfang right out of the gate while the other half handle the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Once Illfang's first health bar is depleted we switch rolls, the second group of Parties will attack Illfang while the first group uses the opportunity to heal up in addition to taking out the Kobold Sentinels. We keep this up until the Boss is dead, collect our reward then go open up the Second Floor. What do you all think?" Diabel asked looking over the assembled players with kind eyes as murmurs of agreement could be heard.

"Oh, hi Argo." The voice came from behind them, Argo herself spun around while Naruto just threw a quick look over his shoulder. The Black Swordsman and a tag along, well there was something you didn't see every day, even now Kirito was known for rarely ever forming a team with someone.

"Nice to see you too Kii-bou." Argo replied in a happy tone as Kirito turned his attention to the great sword user.

"Good to see you as well Siegfried," Kirito added a small smile still on his lips. Naruto just turned back slightly and nodded.

"Nice to see you again Black Swordsman." The blond responded before turning his attention back to the assembled group of Players. They had met up a few times before and gone through a couple of Quests together but often left the town in opposite directions the day after so Naruto really couldn't call Kirito any more than a passing acquaintance.

"Hahaha," The Black Swordsman just chuckled lightly. "Well your cold as always," Kirito knew him well enough by this point that the man knew this was just Naruto's way of coping with impending combat. The Black Swordsman turned to his companion still keeping the same easy smile.

"This is Argo and Siegfried," Kirito introduced nodding at each in turn to the cloaked figure. The figure nodded back but didn't speak, Naruto didn't mind. Everyone had different ways of preparing themselves for combat, he got cold, Argo more or less stopped talking unless someone talked to her first or she was emotionally attached. Kirito caressed his sword, or swords depending on his chosen play style that day, a few times, it seemed like the new comer stopped talking just the same way that Argo did.

"Nice to meet you," The figure stated, Naruto couldn't see under the cloak they were wearing but the strangers eyes were on him. "Siegfried," Their voice was high, quite possibly feminine. "The Dragon Slaying Hero of the Nibelungenlied." The, possibly, she stated, Naruto nodded in return eyes not leaving the now quieting amphitheatre.

"You know your legends." The blond responded not taking his eyes away, the figure said nothing more.

"Nice to see you again Asu-chan!" Argo stated in a cheerful voice that was completely out of character when she was preparing for combat, Argo must actually like this person to get an emotional reaction in this state. Naruto tuned the two girls conversation out as he looked down on the silent amphitheatre, Kirito's hand came up and caressed the hilt of his sword before returning down by his side.

"HOLD ON A SECOND!" The words came from a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with a spiky almost cactus like hairdo. "Before I play this game of teams with you there is something I would like to say." The man stated taking centre stage next to Diabel.

"Of course," The Saber Class Player said with a smile. "Differing viewpoints on the strategy and other things are welcomed. But please first tell us your name," Diabel requested, the man nodded in return.

"My name is Kibaou," The man with the cactus shaped hairdo replied before turning to the Players in the amphitheatre and taking in a deep breath. "ALL YOU COWARDLY BETA TESTERS COME OUT RIGHT NOW!" Kibaou demand face red with rage.

"THERE SHOULD BE QUITE A FEW IN THIS GROUP SO GO AHEAD AND SHOW YOURSELVES!" The man continued his voice not lowering in the slightest despite the fact that in an amphitheatre he had no real reason to yell.

"FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS THOSE BASTARDS HOGGED ALL THE RESOURCES! COME FORWARD AND APOLOGISE TO ALL THOSE YOU CAUSED TO DIE! THEN ALL THE ITEMS AND MONEY THAT YOU MANAGED TO GATHER BECAUSE OF YOUR COWARDLY ACTIONS HAND THEM ALL OVER!" Kibaou yelled, Naruto stiffened at his words and put a hand on Argo's shoulder. The small girl may not care about what was being said but the implication that the Beta testers were all completely responsible on a personal level for the deaths of everybody over the last two months would rile Argo up something fierce.

"WORTHLESS COWARDLY BASTARDS LIKE YOU BETA TESTERS DON'T DESERVE THOSE ITEMS OR THAT MONEY! AFTER ALL IT CAME FROM ALL THE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS AND THE DEATHS OF OTHERS, SO HAND IT OVER!" The man demanded, Diabel looked like he was about to say something and Naruto took his hand off of Argo's shoulder as the girl seemed to forcibly calm herself down.

"BETA TESTERS LIKE THAT ARGO THE RAT THAT CHARGE FOR INFORMATION THAT COULD HAVE KEPT PEOPLE ALIVE, BUT YOU BETA TESTERS DIDN'T DON'T YOU ALL FEEL ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!" It seemed like Kibaou would keep going but couldn't, Argo missed her chance to grab the blond and stop him. Naruto could put up with a lot of things but bad mouthing one of his friends wasn't one of them, and regardless of how shaky their relationship was at times Argo was a friend.

The bronze armoured figure landed before Kibaou who seemed surprised that someone had actually come forward, the cactus haired man's mouth began to pull back in a sneer and he opened his mouth. In all honesty Kibaou would have been better off going for the sword on his back, Naruto stood from his crouched position and hammered Kibaou in the jaw with a right cross sending the man stumbling back even though the system prevented any damage from being done.

"You know it's fuckheads like you that really piss me off." Naruto remarked sending a punishing kick at Kibaou's ribs and using all his formidable B rank Strength to send the man flying again. "Don't think I missed what you were saying earlier," The blond added to the downed cactus head that was slowly starting to rise. "Hand over all your items and Col was it?" Naruto asked, his foot once more sending Kibaou flying. "You said that Beta testers should hand over there items and Col right? To who? Surely not a scum-bag like you who just wants to blame other people and run away from his problems." Naruto stated pulling his leg back to take another kick only to find a large hand on his shoulder instead.

"I think that's enough don't you Siegfried?" A deep tone that Naruto would know anywhere asked, the blond turned coming face to face with a giant of a man. Agil was a Rider Class Player that stood at around one hundred and ninety centimetres his frame was almost pure muscle, ebony skin glinting in the sunlight. The man had a shaved head and small goatee that seemed to only add to his intimidation factor even when he was smiling.

"Agil," Naruto responded with a nod bringing his foot back and allowing Kibaou to make it back to his feet. "I still think I should kick the shit out of him a little more, fucking ingrate." The blond added stepping back slightly but making Agil relax slightly as he did so. The two had partied more than a few times over the last two months, normally on gathering Quests, while Agil knew he had a height and reach advantage over the smaller blond he also freely acknowledged that Seigfried was not someone he wished to fight unless he had no other choice in the matter. There were rumours that the blond actually had the highest Strength rating of anyone on the first floor and after what Agil had seen of him the giant wasn't ready to discount those rumours as fiction.

"YOU! YOUR ONE OF THOSE FUCKING BETA TESTERS AREN'T YOU!" Kibaou yelled, Agil just gritted his teeth. He had only just gotten the blond to back down and now this happens, talk about bad timing why don't you. Naruto's hand inched for his sword as Agil's hand tightened slightly on his shoulder. The blond took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second before opening them again, pushing his anger down.

"No I'm not," Naruto responded in a cold tone that told everyone around him on no uncertain terms that the blond would much rather be solving this problem with his sword. "I do however know some Beta testers and they're better people than you are. An asshole like you who just wants to blame other people for his problems is not the kind of person I would want watching my back, I'd take a Beta tester ten times out of ten if they were put against you." Naruto continued his voice taking on an almost acidic quality.

"The Beta testers didn't help people? What a load of bullshit, the Guide Book we've all been using was provided free of charge at every item shop. All the information is to accurate to be something found out just recently, it had to be put together by the Beta testers. This information was probably the best way they could help everyone, and yet shit stains like you insist on calling them out and demanding more from them while blaming all of your problems on the Beta testers. Considering that is it any wonder no Beta testers want to come forward and help people one on one?" The blond was on a roll now, his voice still bitingly acidic.

"I don't know why you have such hate towards the Beta testers but I do know that I will thank whatever deities that exist that I am not a self-possessed, arrogant, loud-mouthed, shit stain like yourself." Naruto finished his vitriol fuelled rant before turning back to Agil and removing the man's hand from his shoulder. "Do whatever you want now Agil I won't harm him, but if he decides to mouth off again about my friend I will not be held responsible for my actions." The large man let the smaller blond go and Naruto jumped back into the crowd taking his place next to Argo and waited for discussions to continue. The Auburn haired girl gave the blond a small pat on the shoulder a kind of silent thank you. Naruto simply let the ghost of a smile grace his lips, it might not be much but that was thank you enough.

Besides doing that had confirmed what Argo had told him earlier about Diabel not being as much of a White Knight as he made himself out to be. Someone who really was, or at least was a very good acting approximation of, a White Knight would have stepped in and stopped his altercation with the shit stain almost immediately but Diabel didn't. The man seemingly content to let them fight it out but was now playing the crowd by acting as a peacemaker between Agil and Kibaou. Yet another confirmation that Argo's information was almost always good, then again what else had Naruto been expecting considering the man had called himself a Devil in Polish.

**XXX**

The Raid was assembled outside the Bosses room at eleven thirty the next day. Naruto's stunt hadn't won them any friends though and as such both the blond and Argo herself were relegated to support duty with Kirito and the person that Argo had been calling Asu-chan. The blond hadn't desired to inquire further yet and knowing Argo she would charge him so Naruto just let sleeping dogs lie.

Kirito hadn't said anything to him, it seemed the Black Swordsman knew him well enough to leave him alone before a fight. Neither Argo nor the mysterious waif that Kirito had picked up were saying anything, it seemed they really did have the same mental prep work before a battle. The blond spied Kirito caressing the hilts of his two swords out of the corner of his eye and smiled slightly, they were all on edge, hopefully it would make them fight better.

"So what's the plan?" Argo asked as the other Party leaders began to talk in front of them. The Black Swordsman threw at the great sword user before him and Naruto sighed before nodding.

"I'll pull most of the agro and act like a Tank as much as I can." The blond stated rolling his shoulders. "I've got the best defensive equipment anyway, might as well make use of it right." Naruto stated getting Kirito to nod before sighing.

"Considering we have a Party of three Saber Class Players and one Assassin we're at a disadvantage in terms of flexibility, we'll have to make up for it by fighting smarter instead of harder." The black haired teen added with another sigh making Argo nod.

"Okay how about this then, Seig takes the front and the brunt of the damage while you and Asu-chan support from the back using hit and run tactics. I'll set up traps behind us and do some backstabbing where I can, once Seig feels his health is too low he'll switch out with you two and come back over the traps I set up and heal. Once that's done, we call out you to retreat and we kill as many of the little bastards using the traps as possible then do it all over again." Argo put forward, Naruto and Kirito nodded to each other. The other Saber Class Player didn't react choosing instead just to listen.

"It'll do," Naruto stated after a second, Kirito nodding in grim agreement.

"Haven't got much else to go on." The black haired teen admitted after a minute. The monolithic doors before the Raid group of six parties not including their own, not everyone from the day before had turned up. Well that was expected so no huge surprises there, Diabel led the charge into the boss room as the chamber lit up in response to the Players intrusion.

Illfang the Kobold Lord was sitting on a black granite throne at the end of the expansive room. Even sitting down the monster seemed to be around four meters in high, Naruto guessed that would make him about six to six and a half standing. Well it was quite obvious that the Kobold Lord would have the reach advantage in close combat, the Archer Class Players may well be the ones to make this a win considering their ability to attack from long range while everyone else kept the damn thing and it Sentinels busy.

The monster looked up and howled to the heavens leaping off the throne to land in the centre of the room with grace far removed from what one would expect considering its size and bulk. The dog like monster roared once more signalling the start of the Boss Battle. Before the Kobold Lord his Sentinels appeared, three just like expected, what wasn't expected were the Extra Mobs that were spawned. The Ravenous Kobold's were something that no one was expecting, twenty of them was definitely something no one was expecting. It was still a problem they were going to have to deal with though, Naruto looked back at the three behind him.

"Okay new plan!" The blond stated before flicking his gaze back at the approaching wave of enemies.

"And what would that be?" Argo asked somewhat sarcastically and somewhat hysterically.

"WING IT!" The blond roared, hand darting up and ripping the Iron Great sword off his back in one smooth motion. Naruto was one hundred percent sure that if Agro had more time she would have come up with a suitably cutting remark about his new 'plan', and Naruto used that word in the loosest possible sense, unfortunately for Argo the wave of Mobs hit the Players at the exact moment Naruto finished outlining his 'plan' and after that there was no more time left to think.

The huge two-handed blade split the air with a hiss caving in the first Ravenous Kobold's skull and depleting the Mob's health instantly. Naruto whipped the blade around stopping the Kobold on his left from spilling his intestines over the floor. The Iron Great sword flicked up cutting off the Kobold's right arm and sending it's weapon flying before a twisting thrust pierced the Mob's heart in one vicious motion. Naruto's left arm blurred snatching the Iron Sword out of mid air, the blonds right arm cut out Great sword smashing away the attack of an axe wielding Kobold. Naruto spun on the balls of his feet and rammed the Rusty Iron Sword in his left hand through the Kobold's chest before kicking it away for good measure.

The blonds two hands returned to the Great sword as the next enemy closed in swinging it's axe down in a vicious arc. He couldn't dodge and as such Naruto stepped forward allowing the axe to bounce off his pauldron with a shower of sparks his fist met the Kobold's face a split second later sending the beast reeling before the Great sword came back in and impaled the monsters stomach Naruto adjusted his grip and wrenched up splitting the Mob from groin to head in a single vicious movement. Buying him a second of reprieve, Naruto cast his eyes around and found what he was looking for, four Kobold's standing closely grouped together. The Blond flicked his left hand out at the group and concentrated.

A bullet was loaded into the gun, the hammer cocked back, ready to fire. Naruto inhaled, the trigger was pulled and the hammer came down launching the bullet into his brain.

"**Trigger Off!"** The blond yelled, pain entered his senses as Mana rushed through Naruto's circuits. It was an interesting system in Heaven's Feel that governed magic, by completing a certain Quest in Starting City one gained access to their Magic Circuits and could from that point on use Magic. When your circuits circulated Mana it actually hurt for some reason but it did allow you some interesting abilities. Personally Naruto was a fan of the Elemental school of Magic, wind and fire Magic to be exact, which was exactly what he was about to use.

"**Fireball!"** The blond roared hand still held out towards the Mob's that were still grouped together. Flame gathered in his open palm before roaring away as if it were shot out of a cannon, the human sized ball of fire impacted with the Kobold's and their screams made Naruto smile slightly, job well done right there. The blond shut off the flow of Magic as soon as the fireball connected he was a Saber Class and in order to use his Prana Burst he would need to save as much Mana as he could, that was simply too good of an opportunity to ignore.

The Iron Great sword whipped around smashing through the clumsy defence of one Kobold before taking it's head, Naruto let the force of his attack carry him around and brought the flat of the sword before him blocking the attack of a Kobold that was trying to sneak up behind him. The blond pushed sending the Kobold skidding back, Naruto ducked down and picked the axe of one of the dead Kobold's off the ground and pulled back.

A green light effect settling over the axe as the system assist kicked in Naruto's body flowed forward and he released the axe in a single flowing motion. The melee weapon turned projectile howled through the air before splitting open his targets skull. The blond twisted spinning around and raising his leg, heel kicking an approaching enemy in the head before grabbing the Kobold with his spare hand and throwing it into another Mob that was sneaking up behind Argo.

Naruto's instincts went wild and the blond dropped to the ground just in time to avoid getting his head taken off by a Ruin Kobold Sentinel. Naruto pushed off the floor with his left hand launching a low kick into the Sentinel's stomach and pushing the monster back as the blond regained his footing, bringing the Iron Great sword between him and his enemy.

The Sentinel charged back in, mace leading. Naruto hopped back just avoiding the attack and responded with a vicious cut at the Kobold's mid-section that was barely deflected by it's armour. The hilt of the Great sword came up level with the blond's eyes before Naruto charged forward closing the gap in the time it would take most to blink. The blade came down as the blond hacked at his foe's head, the shaft of the mace rose up and deflected the blow. Naruto just grimaced in response, jumping over the Sentinel's head to strike it's back instead, the Great sword and armour clashed erupting into sparks at the impact point but the Sentinel's declining health let Naruto know he'd connected well with that blow.

The monster turned, mace leading, Naruto's blade whipped up the flat of the Great sword taking the brunt of the impact and causing Naruto to grunt slightly. Well these fuckers packed a punch he would give them that, but they really needed to work on watching their back more. A flash of auburn hair was the only indication Naruto needed less than half a second later Argo had sunk both of her daggers up to their hilt in the back of Ruin Kobold Sentinel. The monster roared in pain and attempted to turn in order to deal with the new enemy, Naruto didn't let it. The blonds left hand whipped out off of the hilt of his Great sword and grabbed the shaft of the mace preventing the Sentinel from turning.

A vicious smile split Naruto's face as he saw Argo rip her daggers free and dash away. The blond let go of the mace and kicked the Sentinel back before following up with a charge and shoulder checking the monster back further. Naruto's left hand left the hilt of his sword once more and grabbed the front of the Kobold's armour, lifting the figure above the blonds own head.

"**TRIGGER OFF! WIND BULLET!"** Naruto commanded, pain once more suffused his body as the bullet of wind sent the Sentinel high into the air. The Great sword came back resting near the floor as the blade began to glow a piercing blue.

Magic and Sword Skill combination technique, **Falling Star**.

The Great sword leapt up as soon as the Sentinel was in range, the first slice took the Sentinel's head, the second bisected the monster horizontally before the final cut split the Mob cleanly in half vertically. This time Naruto didn't shut off the Magic flowing through his body as something more important caught his attention. The other Parties and his own had dealt with all of the smaller Mobs while Illfang's health was whittled down, now Diabel was making the final attack but something was wrong, Naruto didn't know what but something was very, very, wrong.

The blond was always someone to listen to his instincts and as such he charged towards the Raid Leader the second he felt something off. It seemed he wasn't alone in his feeling either if the dashing form of Kirito was anything to go by. If one of them was going to get there in time it was going to be him, which Naruto knew for sure. It wasn't some kind of macho I have to save the day idea or anything like that, no it was a simple matter of distance, the blond was much closer than the Black Swordsman. Though considering how fast Kirito was Naruto was sure that the other Player would reach Diabel less than a second or two behind him. Still that second or two could make all the difference in the world.

Illfang drew his second weapon and Naruto knew instantly it wasn't a Talwar, that was a Nodachi which meant his attack pattern would be entirely different if the other Sword Skills were anything to go by. If the horrified look on Diabel's face meant anything he knew this to but it was already to late to stop his charge. The Nodachi glowed blood red before becoming little more than a blur, the first strike sliced Diabel across the belly while the second one split him from right shoulder to left hip.

Illfang jumped Nodachi held overhead to finish the Sword Skill by cutting Diabel in half from head to toes. Naruto jumped in front of the blue haired Saber and swung his Great sword up. The blond didn't have time to activate a Sword Skill and under normal circumstances that would mean he would lose the clash. The room seemed to hold it's breath and despite the roar from Illfang as he came down to kill the two Players before him every single person in the room heard the blond say two words.

"Prana Burst."

Naruto uttered the two words just before the Nodachi made contact with his own Great sword and, despite the sheer absurdity of it all, Illfang was the one sent flying. The huge red dog like beast flew fifteen meters before having his flight unceremoniously stopped by a pillar cracking the object on contact, a testament to the strength of the blow he had been hit with.

"**GRGGAGGRAGRGGRGGAGG!"** An incomprehensible roar of pure rage came from the downed Kobold Lord as Illfang pulled himself back to his feet. Naruto dashed off to the side getting the Floor Boss to follow him, the two blades connected once more and Naruto allowed himself to be pushed back. The blond spied Argo out of the corner of his eye who nodded just once and held up her hands, Naruto pushed back against Illfang's Nodachi and broke their weapon lock before jumping back. The Floor Boss let out another bellow of rage and raced after the fleeing blond haired nuisance that had caused it so much trouble.

Argo just grinned as Illfang ran right where she wanted it to and pulled back on the steel wires in her hand raising her trap. Wires pulled taunt around the Floor Boss wrapping him in a cocoon of steel, a hissing sound caught the attention of the other Players whose eyes widened. The steel wires were covered with Explosive Notes, Argo's smile just grew wider, if that was even possible.

"Katsu!" The auburn haired girl commanded a huge fireball consuming the Floor Boss. Naruto raced back in and pulled his Great sword back slamming the blade into the now downed Illfang's side and making the Kobold Lord air born once more. The girl that Argo had called Asu-chan didn't waste the opportunity Naruto recognised the attack from other Rapier users he had met, Quadruple Pain, a four hit serial strike using extreme speed to deal damage as quickly as humanly possible. The attack bounced Illfang forward again and into Kirito's waiting blades, the Black Swordsman jumped his height now equal to the towering form of the Kobold Lord. The two one-handed swords lit up as Kirito activated his skill, Naruto didn't know it's name but the attack spun the Black Swordsman around once to build up centrifugal force before striking taking off Illfang's head in one smooth movement.

Naruto sheathed his Great sword as Kirito landed patting the other teen on the back in a show of camaraderie and was soon joined by Argo and the girl called Asu-chan, while the other Players cheered. A Congratulations message appearing above the Raid Group as they did so, Naruto sighed rolling his shoulders time to get a move on to the second level, but first.

"See that wasn't so bad now was it Argo?" The blond taunted, getting a smack over the back of the head from the smaller teen in return.

"Shut up," Argo responded, Naruto just smiled in response, all in all today wasn't that bad.

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!" The roar of the cactus head came over the festivities, of course that being said the day wasn't exactly over yet.

'Teach me for counting my chickens before they hatch.' Naruto thought to himself with a grumble. Before turning his attention to Kibaou, really Fang King? What a pretentious name.

"IF YOU ALL HAD POWER LIKE THAT WHY DIDN'T YOU USE IT EARLIER?" He demanded, Naruto could think of plenty of good reasons personally. They had been dealing with their own problems up until then, their job was not to attack Illfang, only support. Ect, ect, but somehow he doubted that the cactus head would listen to any worlds he had to say.

"YOU GUYS STARTED MOVING THE SECOND ILLFANG DREW OUT HIS KATANA, YOU TWO MUST HAVE KNOWN SOMEHOW! THE GUIDE BOOK WASN'T WRONG UPUNTIL NOW SO I BET THE BETA TESTERS WERE USING ALL OF US AS CANNON FODDER TO CHECK WHAT HAD CHANGED IN THE SYSTEM. I BET EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU IS A BETA TESTER AREN'T YOU, THE PEOPLE WHO DIED HERE. EVERY LAST DEATH IS ON YOUR HEADS! THERE MUST BE OTHER BETA TESTERS HERE TO SO COME ON OUT AND TAKE RESPONCIBILITY!" Kibaou shouted out, Naruto began to crouch slightly getting ready should combat start.

"heheHeHeHeHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!" Behind him Kirito calmly went insane, a huge and sadistic smile appearing on his face. Oh dear God Naruto didn't know what idea the Black Swordsman had but it was probably a bad one. Though the blond admitted that it probably didn't really matter what the idea was, he owed Kirito. Naruto wasn't blind and he had seen the Black Swordsman kill more than a couple of the Kobold's that had tried to blind side him and Naruto always paid his debts.

"Beta tester?" Kirito asked sounding somewhat amused at the notion of being called one the snorting derisively. "I really do wish you wouldn't compare me to those weaklings!" The Black Swordsman spat out, Naruto had to give Kirito points as far as acting went that tone of disgust actually sounded quite genuine.

"What do you mean?" Kibaou asked, sounding off put by the tone he was being spoken to in. Kirito just shrugged and walked past the man and closer to the exit.

"Most of the Beta testers were beginner's." He freely admitted shrugging his shoulder slightly. "Most of there were complete morons who didn't even know how to level up, in all honesty most of you are better than they were." Kirito admitted then stopped and turned to face the crowd, Naruto inched forward ready to jump in should everything go to hell.

"But I wasn't like them." The Black Swordsman stated his voice becoming cocky. "I made it to higher floors than anyone else during the Beta. The reason I knew Illfang's skill set is that I've fought with Bosses on Levels far above this one that used Katana skills. I know a lot more." Kirito stated, saying it like it was a simple fact. "Far more than any two bit, slimy, unreliable, midget of an information broker!"

"I am not a midget!" Argo stated heatedly from her position next to the blond haired Saber.

"W-What the hell that's far worse than any Beta Tester." Kibaou said, his voice sounding like he couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.

"YOUR A FUCKING CHEATER!" The cactus haired man yelled out after a second. Really calling him a cheater was the best they could come up with? As far as insults go that was kind of, okay actually that was really quite pathetic.

"A Beta Tester and a Cheater, a Beater!" Someone from the crowd yelled out, oh dear God they were somehow getting worse at coming up with insults.

"Beater." Kirito tested the words on his tongue before a vicious smile split his face. "Yeah I like that, I'm a Beater. Don't confuse me with those other pieces of worthless trash you call Beta Testers!" He demanded eyes narrowed at the crowd while equipping some kind of leather coat, black of course. Kirito just smiled at the crowd just one more time before turning to go up the stairs, it seemed like cactus head couldn't take it anymore. The angered man screamed and charged forward a yellow light surrounding his one-handed sword.

Naruto dashed forward, the Iron Great sword once more coming free of it's sheath in a single clean movement. The two blades clashed Naruto's own high ranked Strength and the Prana Burst ability let him easily block the blow. Kibaou had just enough time to register the fact his strike had been blocked before Naruto's foot buried itself in the man's stomach with enough force to send him flying back into the crowd, knocking down five more Players like bowling pins. The blond curled both his hands around the sword holding the blade defensively before him.

"Anyone else want to be a hero!?" He demanded tone cold. "I owe this guy so hands the fuck off," Naruto stated, another man went to move forward but stopped as soon as the Great sword was levelled in his direction. The blond threw a quick look over his shoulder and got a grateful look in return before Kirito ascended the steps and was quickly out of sight. The girl Argo had called Asu-chan, Asuna Naruto corrected himself only now thinking to check the party listing, chasing after him. He let her past along with Argo who stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned back around.

"Oh while I think about it how about I tell you imbeciles a story." The auburn haired Assassin said sarcastically. "My name is Argo [The Rat] and I wrote that Guide Book that's been keeping most of you alive up until now. I had no idea the Floor Bosses Specs had been changed and no I was not using all of you to gather more data. The Book has several warning that state the information may no longer be accurate dumbass!" Argo stated in a cutting tone before turning cold, eyes locked on Diabel who suddenly seemed very uncomfortable.

"But that's not the story I wanted to tell you. Since being near you dumbasses is probably dragging down my intelligence I'll make this quick. Back in the Beta there was a Player that constantly hunted down others and killed them taking their equipment and Coll. He also found people who had unique or hard to get items and either tried to buy them or if that failed he killed them then took the gear for himself. In addition to that he was infamous for doing as little as possible during the Boss Battles then charging in at the end to get the last kill bonus despite the fact everyone else did all the work." Argo stated, Naruto saw Diabel's face slowly getting paler and paler.

"I know he hasn't been killing people but stealing and attempting to buy other peoples gear that he has been doing." The auburn haired woman stated, Diabel opened his mouth but promptly shut it again when Naruto levelled his blade in the blue haired Saber's direction.

"He also pulled one of his old tricks today, trying to get the last hit on the Boss despite barely fighting at all beforehand. That Players name was Polish for Devil." Argo stated looking straight at Kibaou before continuing. "The word for Devil in Polish is Diabel." The Information Broker finished before turning and dashing up the steps and out of sight an action which Naruto immediately mirrored with Agil hot on his heels. Hearing the yelling from down below the blond personally felt that was a very prudent action.

**Heavens Feel Chapter One End**


	2. Chapter 2

**Heavens Feel**

**Chapter Two: The Caster**

**Authors Note-**

Well here's chapter two like the last chapter it starts with events that take place years after the actual chapter itself. In fact every chapter that introduces a main character will have some kind of flash forward to a significant event that involves both Naruto and them in the future, kind of like a sneak peek at a chapter yet to come.

Other than that just going to say that yes this is partly based on Throne of Heroes Online which you can find in the Fate/Stay Night Sword Art Online cross over section of Fan Fiction and I recommend you read it because it is a good story.

Also since SAO really does lack in a variety of characters, mostly Male but some Female as well, you will see more than a few characters from different Manga's and Anime come up from time to time in this story simply for character diversity, some will come from Naruto but others wont.

No they are not from a parallel world or anything like that.

This chapter introduces Tohsaka Rin from Fate/Stay Night. I just wanted to add her really, I've been replaying Fate/Extra and Rin is one of my favourite characters from that game and from the Fate Franchise in general so I couldn't help but throw her in. While either the next chapter or the one after will introduce Kushina. As for male characters Ah-Dol, Boromir and Lotto the three players who will make up Team Triple Threat from the Manhwa Yureka will be introduced somewhere down the line as well.

Not one hundred percent sure if this is the edited version or not since my Beta and I have had some issues with our e-mail over the last couple of weeks but if it's not then I will fix it up sometime over the coming week.

Also I'm heading to Thailand over the next two or so weeks and most likely won't update during that time frame though I may be able to get one more chapter of another story up before I leave, just figured I'd give everyone a heads up to not expect updates over the Christmas season. Considering when I get back you can expect me to start posting new chapters again sometime after the 12th of January 2014.

Happy holidays and a very merry Christmas to all.

Please thank Zimbolical for the Beta.

**Story Start-**

**Zimbo please delete this line after you are finished editing so I know I'm uploading the edited version, thanks.**

_"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ !" The sound was a roar that nothing human could ever produce. The Caster Class Player dodged ducked and dived to get away from the approaching spectre of Death that was closing in on her fast._

_The Caster Class Player was a woman in her late teens to early twenties, long black hair that went down to the middle of her back in waves, the twin tail hairstyle she had when this Death Game first started had long since been discarded. Her outfit was less ostentatious than most Caster Class Players as she preferred form and functionality over looks. Grey leather boots that went half way up her calf's before stopping, well made black pants that led up to a simple white shirt with no design a large red coat that went down to the back of the woman's knees completed the look._

_The Caster Class Player's name was Tohsaka Rin in the real world, her screen name was simply Rin. In the game Heavens Feel her title was [Caster of Red] denoting the young woman as one of the four most powerful Caster Class Players and even that lofty title was availing her nothing against the monster she was currently facing._

_On the Seventieth Floor of Aincrad a Special Quest had been sent out to all guilds telling of a High Risk-High Reward Dungeon that required special keys to open, the Dungeon itself would become available on the Seventy-fifth Floor but the first of the Four Keys were on the proceeding ones. It had taken an alliance of her own Guild, Clock Tower, named after the Organisation she was part of in the real world, and four others. _

_The Divine Dragons Alliance, Golden Apple, Black Iron Legion and Fuumaningun_ _in order to collect all four keys to open the door to the Dungeon. Though it had taken slightly longer than expected some of their raid groups coming back without a key claiming someone else had beaten them to it making them go back the next day to try again. _

_At that moment Rin considered Golden Apple to be the smartest of the assembled Guilds, her own Clock Tower included. Half way in the members of Golden Apple were getting very, very nervous about the power of the enemies they were coming into contact with and as such held a vote the Guild ultimately deciding that leaving and preserving all of their lives was the better course of action that continuing on and maybe getting one of them killed, if only the rest of them had been so smart._

_The other Guilds had continued on, Rin's Clock Tower included despite her own growing worry at the power of the enemies they were facing. They eventually reached the Boss of the Unnamed Dungeon and it was at that moment that Tohsaka Rin knew they had no hope of victory. The Boss Room, if it could really be called that, was a vast mountainous region that had opened up after the alliance of Guilds had come out of the underground Dungeon filled with debris, charred skeletons and caves._

_Then it had happened a roar unlike anything she had ever heard echoed over the mountain range speaking of raw fury and untamed savagery. Then he appeared something that Rin, for all her power as [Caster of Red], holder of the Noble Phantasm [Jewel Sword Zelretch], had never wished to face._

_Fafnir._

_One of the five Dragon Kings._

_One of the Ancient Dragons._

_The Demonic Dragon._

_The Sky Demon._

_The Evil Dragon._

_Like the other five Fafnir carried dozens of titles but it wasn't until that moment that Rin realised just how powerful each of the Dragon Kings really were. The Raid Group had been Two Hundred Strong when they first entered the Bosses Room of the Unnamed Dungeon. Around ten of which, including herself, carried Noble Phantasms. Though Rin was proud to say that her own was the strongest._

_Fafnir of the Dragon Kings annihilated the entire raid force except for her in less than ten minutes._

_The Dragon was terrible in its fury and once the he appeared completely the trap went off, a kind of Anti-Crystal Trap. It still allowed for most type to be used but completely stopped any type of transference Crystal or Magic as well as blocking them from moving back into the Unnamed Dungeon stopping the Raid Group from retreating completely._

_"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ !" The roar came once more as Rin knew The Sky Demon circled above her. Her cave would not protect her for long, sooner or later the Dragon King would get tired of searching and start bombarding the area with its breath attack, when that happened, she would die, maybe not immediately it may take Fafnir a few attacks to kill her but the Evil Dragon would kill her eventually, that was fact, if she wanted to survive Rin knew that she needed to face the Dragon King on her own terms but the black haired Caster wasn't exactly sure about how to do that just yet._

_Rin looked down, Aqua coloured eyes narrowing as she tried to come up with some kind of plan that could keep her alive long enough to figure out how to escape. There had to be a way! She would not just lay down and die! Her hand went to the blade strapped behind her, a beautiful sword around a foot and a half in length making it a Short Sword by the Systems definition._

_The grip was pale Ivory taken from an Optional Boss many levels below the current Front Line of the Seventy-fifth Floor. The Guard didn't look all that impressive being what looked to be a hewn chunk of granite that was actually the heart of another Optional Boss on Floor Forty while the blade of the Jewel Sword itself was pure diamond that Rin had shaped herself after killing the Field Boss that guarded it._

_The young woman known as [Caster of Red] had finally completed her Noble Phantasm on Floor Fifty-five after possessing the plans, but not the materials, for the blade since Floor Twenty. Not that Rin found that to be particularly surprising, all Noble Phantasms were only available from Floor Fifty and above though those that had to build their own Noble Phantasm had probably had the Plans since around Floor Twenty or Thirty, it simply took a very long time to acquire all of the artefacts required to create them. Some materials not appearing before certain floors or having specific ways of acquiring them that were incredibly obscure made it even harder to create the weapons._

_The Jewel Sword allowed Rin a power that most Caster Class Players would kill for, Infinite Mana. It was literally impossible for the young woman to ever run out of power for her spells; however this in itself was a double edged sword. In normal battles it wasn't a problem, Rin could easily keep throwing around even high level spells all day long but when the Jewel Sword was used for its other function it took an incredible toll on her._

_By collecting an amazing amount of Mana and charging it into the blade Rin was able to fire off a destructive blast of light with incredible power but in exchange it taxed her horribly. While the young woman called [Caster of Red] may have had access to unlimited amounts of Mana that didn't mean she could use it constantly for charging the Jewel Sword without consequence. It still required her to process the Mana through her Magic Circuits before charging the Jewel Sword and with the amount she was using, it caused Rin incredible amounts of pain to fire off more than five of the blasts from her blade._

_Since she had first laid eyes of Fafnir almost twenty minutes ago Rin had used more than twenty._

_The black haired Caster Class Player sighed struggling to her feet and shaking off the wooziness she was feeling from the slowly receding pain, that could be dealt with later. If what she could hear from the Dragon's wing beats was as accurate as Rin hoped then Fafnir wasn't to far away, she would need to draw the Dragon's attention and get it to attack her with a breath attack then counter with her Jewel Sword. If everything played out like it had the last time then the hit should stun the Dragon long enough for her to get off another blast, damaging and disorientating the Dragon King and giving Rin just enough time to find a new place to hide while she continued to try and find a way out._

"_**Aufwachen**__," Rin spoke quietly before groaning slightly at the feel of her already abused Magic Circuits activating once more. The black haired young woman pushed the pain aside there would be time to deal with it when she wasn't about to be killed by a monster she had no chance of killing unless a miracle occurred._

"_**Verstärkung**__," She commanded, Reinforcing her body and pushing it's physical parameters higher than they had any right to be for a Caster Class Player. It was a trick quite a few Caster's used, especially those like her that had picked up the Marital Arts Extra Skill. Though many of the Warrior Classes took advantage of the spell when they had the chance as well._

_Rin looked down once more at her blade before slowly adding her Mana to the blade; the Jewel Sword seemed to glow with an almost inner light before shifting slightly. The blade releasing a multi-coloured glow that seemed to shift and twist with all the colours of the Kaleidoscope._

_Rin breathed deeply before rushing out of her cave, wing beats sounded from behind the black haired Caster almost instantly as she hit an open expanse of cracked and barren land where most of her Raid Party had been slaughtered less than half an hour before. Rin spun on the balls of her feet and swung the Jewel Sword Zelretch in a single smooth motion as her eyes landed on the Dragon King that was chasing her._

_Fafnir was huge, of that there was no denying. The Dragon King measuring over a hundred meters in length and easily another hundred for his tail that waved proudly in the wind behind him. The Dragon Kings scales were a dark green mixed with black, wings several times the length of his body blotted out the sky behind him. The claws on each of his four limbs were two or three times the hight of any human. The Dragon King's head was just as large as the rest of his body his wide open maw easily able to fit more than ten fully grown men inside. Fangs twice as large as any man dripped with saliva while his eyes were as red as ruby's and narrowed with hate, a pair of horns twenty meters long extended above each eye, Rin knew from personal experience that they were a devastating close combat weapon. The Dragon King reared back chest expanding as Fafnir threw it's head towards the heavens._

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅ _!" The Dragon King roared once more and Rin took a second to check it's remaining health as a pit of fear appeared in her stomach. Out of Fafnir's seven health bars they had only been able to take down half of one, yet another testament to the Dragon King's strength. Rin drew in more air as she pulled her arm back, Fafnir's neck twisted slightly as the Dragon King's chest expanded glowing from within a golden light almost glowing from behind its teeth. It breath, quite possibly the most dangerous part of this entire encounter._

"_ARGRGHHHH!" Rin roared back with a wordless scream of defiance, the Jewel Sword was swung just as Fafnir's head came down spewing flames that were more akin to magma than ordinary fire. From the tip of the rainbow coloured blade came a blast of light that matched the magma in size and out did it in pure strength. The golden light seared the very air before slamming into the fire with all the force of an angry God. The two attacks seemed to stalemate for a split second before the golden light ripped through the magma like flame and continued on to smash into the Dragon King's head sending Fafnir into a free fall before he collided with a nearby mountain smashing it into rubble._

_Rin immediately started charging the Jewel Sword Zelretch once more, this was one of the main problems with the raid group. She was the only one with an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm, the others all carried Anti-Units and Anti-Army both of which were useless for deflecting the Breath of the Dragon King Fafnir. Not only that but due to the sheer size of the Dragon most Anti-Units were more or less ineffective while the Anti-Army Noble Phantasms lacked the necessary kick to do any real damage._

_Only an Anti-Fortress could hope to do any real damage to the Dragon King in a single hit and since Rin's own took time to charge like most other Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasms her second attack to deal damage and disorientate Fafnir was less powerful than the attack she used to deflect his Breath due to the reduced charge time, making her strike far less effective than it should be if she had enough time to charge the blow properly. _

_The rainbow coloured light roared from her Noble Phantasm as Rin charged her attack and spotted the green and black of the Dragon King stirring, shit it was going to have to do. The Caster of Red pulled her arm back ready to deliver another blow._

"_Move a little to the left."_

_The voice spoke directly into her mind and was one Rin knew well. The black haired young woman didn't waste time asking questions and instead dashed to her left as soon as she was clear a huge amount of blue light crashed through the mountain behind her vaporising the earthen giant completely before continuing on to strike the still recovering Dragon King with its full force. It was easy to tell where the attack had come from, the huge gash in the earth was a very clear indication that no one could miss even if the figure running towards her wasn't enough._

_He stood a little over six feet tall though Rin could tell that he didn't break the two metre mark. A kind of rust orange colour marked the man's gauntlets, pauldrons and boots while his greaves, breastplate and upper arms were all coloured with a blue so dark it was almost black. Over the armour was a strange pair of two pieces of cloth that sort of resembled a coat. The upper half covered the man's arms completely only just allowing one to see the rust orange of his gauntlets and pauldrons on just the right angle while leaving his chest bare clearly showing the dark blue of his breastplate. A white string done up in elaborate fashion connect the left half of the red jack to the right before it stopped just after the man's chest. The other half of the sort of coat began at his hips and went all the way down to just before the man's feet, Rin knew Namikaze Naruto [Saber of Red] quite well after the two years inside Heavens Feel._

"_Yo Rin!" Naruto stated cheerfully a childlike grin on his face, back to the Dragon King he had just burred back inside the mountain Fafnir had been about to claw it's way out of. Rin just sighed, same old Naruto._

_Though if someone was to tell her that the excitable bundle of energy that had become her friend over the last two years was the same grim man that she had first met on Aincrad's Second Floor two years ago then Rin probably would have told that person to go get their head examined. Her eyes widened as Rin threw herself forward smashing her blond haired friend out of the way and swinging down the Jewel Sword in a single clean motion that told of the many hours she had spent practising with the blade._

_Golden light once more roared from the tip of the Noble Phantasm of Tohsaka Rin, The Jewel Sword Zelretch. It burned across the heavens in less time than it took a man to blink before crashing into the Dragon King and sending Fafnir through the mountain the last two blows had buried it in._

"_BAKA!" Rin yelled turning around and slapping her blond haired acquaintance over the head. Face turned up in genuine anger at Naruto's lack of care when on the battlefield. "Keep your head in the game!" She yelled causing the blond Namikaze to rub the back of his head in an almost subdued fashion._

"_Right Rin, sorry." Naruto responded causing the black haired Magus's right eye to jump slightly in agitation a smile spread over her face. Rin's eyes closed slightly a peaceful smile spreading over her face as she turned to face the blond; every alarm bell inside the head of Namikaze Naruto went off at once._

_Run._

_Don't look back, just Run._

_Run!  
_

_Run!_

_RUN!_

"_Ara Ara Namikaze-kun," Rin stated in a perfectly calm voice that only reinforced to Naruto just how deep the shit he was in really was. "Surely someone who earned the title Saber of Red wasn't spacing out on the battlefield were they?" Rin inquired as Naruto rushed to formulate a response._

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▄▄▅▅▃▃▅▂▂▅▅ _!" Another roar this one far longer and far more terrible than the others, it spoke only of pure rage and the desire to kill everything around it in the most brutal fashion possible. It would rend, it would break, it would disembowel, behead, crush, drown, devour, melt, sear, burn, annihilate everything around it. Rin grimaced and turned back towards where the roar had come from as Fafnir of the Five Dragon Kings took to the sky once more, the Demonic Dragon's form blotting out the sky, it seemed they had angered him beyond anything else._

_A rainbow of light roared from the Jewel Sword clutched in Rin's right hand while a torrent of blue light burned inside of Naruto's own weapon. The Saber and Caster of Red looked at each other once before nodding. They could rip into each other later right now staying alive took precedence, they kicked off the ground both leaving cracks in the barren land as they closed towards the air born Dragon King._

_Compared against most Players any person who had achieved a Noble Colour designating them as one of the four strongest of their Class were what level one hundreds were to level ones in most other games, they were Gods._

_And against Fafnir._

_One of the Five Dragon Kings._

_The Evil Dragon._

_The Demonic Dragon._

_One of the Ancient Dragons._

_The Sky Demon._

_They were Gods sent to battle a God._

_Rin swung down the Jewel Sword releasing a torrent of gold light that seemed to split the heavens themselves._

_Naruto's own blade came down the blue light burning the air itself and rendering anything it touched to naught but ash if it did not simply vaporise it instantly._

_Fafnir's neck and chest bulged as the Dragon King let loose a Breath of Magma like flame that dwarfed anything else it had used so far._

_The three attacks connected and the world exploded into white._

**XXX**

The Great sword came down with bone crushing force only to be deflected by the Ogres wooden club. Naruto sighed internally, God dammit. The blonds B rank strength was enough to cleave through almost any defence for the first few floors but there were still a few enemies that could withstand his blows, even if it was for only one or two strikes.

Annoyingly enough the Ogres were one type of enemy capable of doing just that. That being said that was exactly why Naruto was in that particular Mobs area. Ogres had a huge amount of heath and general resistance to physical damage, though far less to Magic. It was for that exact reason that on the second floor they gave the best amount of experience per kill as well as dropping the most Coll. Being in their area was the fastest way to level up, well at least Naruto thought so there was one other way to do so as quickly or maybe quicker depending on who you asked. An area on the other side of the second floor spawned a Mobs in groups of ten or more every few seconds, they died in only one or two hits and their experience wasn't that great but the sheer number of them meant that a skilled player farming that area could compete with another player farming the Ogre area in terms of experience gained each day.

The blond raised his sword taking the from the Ogres club and easily redirecting the weight before twisting his own blade over and sinking the cold metal into the monsters neck in a single smooth motion taking the Mobs health to zero in a single blow. Of course hit a fatal area and it was still a one hit kill for him even against what was considered the best defensive Mob of the Second Floor, Bosses exempted. B rank strength was something that Naruto truly enjoyed at times, at times meaning all the time in this context.

Unlike most players that went for a mix of Strength and Defence for Tanks or Strength and Agility when it came to DPS players Naruto's own mix was Strength and Mana. Though not for the reasons most would assume, e.g. to make the use of more magical attacks on a regular basis though that was a good secondary reason. The real reason the blond had chosen that mix was to enhance the power of his Prana Burst as much as possible to push his damage potential per blow even higher. Naruto opened his stat window and banked the level up he'd gotten from killing the Ogre putting all of his normal Stat Points into Mana while adding the other five he'd picked up from the Quests from around the floor to Agility. No point in having a huge amount of damage per blow if you were to slow to hit anything with it.

Naruto's overall appearance hadn't change that much since they had cleared the First Floor a week ago, the Iron Gauntlets on his hands and the red scarf [Knights Honour] that he had received from killing the Ruin Kobold Sentinel on the First Floor the only readily apparent change to his looks. Those had been a luck drop a day ago, the first day he'd spent slaughtering these Ogres. After reading into Argo's Guide Book more the blond had discovered that the first two floors were where the majority of the levelling would happen for the first ten levels, the Beta Testers knowledge didn't extend past there after all.

The Second Floor of Aincrad had a level cap of twenty after which the levelling slowed down immensely and Players would spend more time raising their various skills and gaining better equipment than they would getting levels. According to the Guide Book if the growth rate for levels after the Tenth Floor remained constant with the levels before then Front Line Players could expect to be the maximum level, one hundred, by around Floor Eighty. Seventy Five if you ruthlessly pushed yourself and grinded like a madman, but no sooner, the enemies simply wouldn't give you enough experience to make the maximum level viable before those floors.

Naruto sighed sheathing the Iron Great sword back onto his back in a well-practised motion. Truth be told the blond was actually waiting on something, a call for Players to take part in one of the Dungeons on this floor, Bleak Falls to be exact. Sooner or later it would come and when it did Naruto would make sure to be a part of it. It had taken a pretty penny paid to Argo but she'd come through with the information he wanted the best two-handed sword weapon of the first nine floors was in Bleak Falls.

The Dungeon itself, which took the form of Town Defence, was specifically tailored to drop items for Caster Class Players, the Second Floor had a grand total of Eight Dungeons each one meant for a specific Class with the final Dungeon meant of a mixed party. But if a Saber with the Two-handed as their most well trained Weapon Skill then the final Boss of that Dungeon a huge Ogre like beast called Devourer would drop a blade simply called Claymore+12. The blade was only eclipsed by the Defender that could be obtained through a series of Quests on Floor Ten.

Another good thing about completing Bleak Falls, at least for Naruto, was that it was a prerequisite to being able to take the Quests Battle For Taki and Death to the Unclean both of which had some nice defensive gear drops as well. The prerequisite for taking the Battle For Taki Quest was completing your own Classes Dungeon and one or more of another Classes Dungeons, this was the same prerequisite for Death to the Unclean, which according to Argo was one of the most disturbing Quests in the game more than earning Heavens Feel its fifteen and above only rating. It was also a direct successor quest to the Bleak Falls Dungeon completing its storyline.

So far Naruto had been into his own Class's Dungeon, Rotting Crypt, a number of times, mostly to gather more Coll as the Mobs inside dropped a fair bit along with Health Potions and a verity of different Crystals. That being said the Coll wasn't as good as killing Ogres but the Potions and Crystals made up the difference most of the time. Well at least until you had a stockpile like Naruto did in which case it was better to go killing Ogres for more Coll since the Banking System to store more items outside of your Inventory didn't open until the Fifth Floor.

The reason that Naruto didn't put together a Party himself was quite simple. The most likely result would be that no one turned up. Kirito and he had become _persona non grata_ or An Unwelcome Person if translated back from Latin. The Front Line Players could, and indeed would, find uses for them during Boss Battles and the like but for most Players they were people to avoid due to Kirito helping create the term Beater and Naruto defending him after that. If the blond put out a call for a Party very few people would turn up if they recognised his name or his face as they risked being accused of being Beta Testers for helping someone that defended one. However if Naruto just turned up after someone put out the call for a Dungeon Run through the Newspaper then whoever called that Run would just be seen as making good use of available resources. It was annoying but, unfortunately, that was the way the cookie crumbled at this point.

The blond threw a quick look at the horizon; the ambient light was starting to get dim signalling the end of another day. Naruto spun on the balls of his feet and made his way back towards Inkino Village, the town right next to the Barren Lands were the Ogres dwelt. Though Barren Lands was something of a misdemeanour, it was more of a few kilometres of barren land with caves every now then not a huge expanse of desert or something like that which most people seemed to think of when they heard the name Barren Lands.

It was then that Naruto felt it, he couldn't understand it in the slightest the feeling coursing through his body. It felt like something was crushing him into the earth, burning him to ash, drowning him in the ocean or ripping him apart in the air. The being causing this feeling seemed more a force of nature than the man he appeared as. The things very being screamed of power and authority it choked the life of all it deemed to be unworthy of being in his presence and slaughtered all those that dared to gaze upon its glory without permission.

The only word that fit the thing that was causing this feeling was King.

The thing shaped like a man, standing at slightly over six feet in height. He wore golden plate mail armour that Naruto knew no one should have access to on this floor, and yet the thing simply wouldn't look right without it, somehow Naruto knew that. An interlocking of blue lines and rune meshed across the front of the resplendent gold armour in unique patterns while red cloth was spread out behind the thing like a cloak. Pale alabaster skin that seemed to gleam in the fading light, the thing reached up and slicked back it's golden hair with an armoured hand, red eyes regarding Naruto with a slight amount of interest.

"Odd," The thing remarked, sounding slightly amused by something. "I didn't think any of you mongrels would be able to stand in the presence of the King but it seems that I was to be surprised today." The thing smirked at the blond as if knowing, somehow, that Naruto thought of it as something utterly beyond human comprehension.

"Well at least you do not speak in the presence of the King without being given leave mongrel. For today my curiosity is stated and you are allowed to live." The gold clad King stated a small but cruel smile on his face. "The next time we meet I expect you to have grown and culled a number of worthy enemies, only a true hero should be allowed to look upon me after all." The thing stated before fading away, Naruto immediately dropped to his knees dry reaching. The blond had no idea how he knew but every second he had been in that things presence there would have been nothing he could do to fight back if the golden King decided to kill him. If that King ever decided he should die then the death of Namikaze Naruto would be assured in that instant and yet, for a reason he did not know, Naruto could feel the smile that was coming to his face.

The blond stood back up and got his breathing back under control, his throat was dry. Placing the encounter with the golden King into the back of his mind Naruto continued his trek towards Inkino Village. The blond wasn't sure how he knew but he did, that meeting was the start of something, whether that something was good or bad however was still up in the air.

**XXX**

The blond woke in a small two by two metre Inn room that he had been renting for the last week and a half and shook the drowsiness off with an ease that spoke of practice. Naruto yawned before standing and rolling his shoulders to work out some of the, non-existent, kinks in his muscles. The blond haired Saber threw on a pair of dark blue pants and a white shirt before sitting down at the desk on the other side of them room. A quick wave of his finger opened up the inventory screen and Naruto quickly selected the item that he wanted, a book, complete with book mark, dropped on to the desk in front of him.

While reading was never the first choice for the blond when it came to entertainment, ranking somewhere near the bottom of the list really, the fact of the matter was that Aincrad didn't have a T.V or access to the net so his choices were relativity limited when it came down to entertainment. So books it was, thankfully Heavens Feel had a huge library of literature that had been added for Players to buy in game. Most of it was from the real world, everything from encyclopaedias to fantasy novels, but there were also some Aincrad originals written by unknown authors. At that particular moment in time Naruto was choosing to enjoy the first book of the Legend of Drizzt series written by R.A Salvatore called Homeland.

Well it was better than anything else he'd been able to pick up so far. Not that Naruto had actually had too much time to spend reading, but when your leisure time more or less equated to stare at the forest or read Naruto took the read option, deeming it the lesser of two evils. The blond casually flicked another page taking in the novel as his left hand flicked, once more opening the inventory and taking out a steak sandwich one of the only decent tasting things he had been able to find so far. He had done some Cooking on the side but nothing had really come of that, well at least not yet. It wasn't like Naruto had spent a whole heap of time grinding that particular skill though so it could always be more useful later on, if for nothing else than cooking a meal that didn't taste like cardboard.

But that day was still a long, long, way off. The blond leaned in and took a quick bite of his sandwich relishing the taste of the steak, sure it got repetitive after the third or fifth time but it still tasted better than half the shit the NPC's served. A small ding let Naruto know that the Newspaper had finally arrived, good he needed to check the personals after all.

A few taps were all it took to have the publication in front of him, since all other forms of Mass Media were impossible to come across in Aincrad the Newspaper was the way to go when it came to current events. Well unless you wanted to go find Argo and have her charge you through the nose for whatever information she happened to have on hand. Though it would be more accurate than anything he found in the Newspaper, that Naruto freely admitted.

The Newspaper itself didn't really look like much, a single piece of parchment with the word Aincrad Times on the front, a large article about how the Clearing of the Second Floor was going complete with picture, though Naruto didn't recognise the man pictured. Other than that the Newspaper, at least to the uninitiated, didn't have anything else to offer. The blond just tapped his finger on the parchment opening up its sub menus and for the most part completely ignored them simply scrolling down to the one listed as Personal and tapping it twice opening a new window. Once more Naruto ignored most of what came up and scrolled down the new menu that had opened before tapping the option labelled Dungeon twice.

'Nope, nope, nope, oh hell no!,' Were the thoughts that ran through the blonds head as he ran down the list, just Naruto's own personal reaction to most of the advertisements recruiting for a Dungeon Run. Before he came across exactly what he was looking for, it was quick simple and to the point unlike most of the flowery ads that had been before it.

_Calling Players for Run of Bleak Falls_

_Five needed, Any Class Welcome._

_Loot on a Need or Greed Basis._

_Equal share of profit for all._

_In case of too many applicants Party will be decided via Duels to 50% Health_

_Meeting Place: Town Square of Inkino Village Monday the 12__th__ of October_

_Time: Eleven Am_

_Party Leader: Rin, Caster Class._

_A good opportunity for Players who wish to complete all prerequisites for the Quest Battle For Taki and Death to the Unclean._

Naruto read through the advertisement again before nodding to himself and standing up, you know what it would do. It was quick and to the point without wasting his time, hopefully the Party Leader would also be like that in person or else he may be slightly disappointed. Still it was good enough, Naruto checked the in game clock and stood up, it was only ten but by the time he got dressed and double checked everything it would be time to leave so he may as well get started. A few quick clicks had him dressed in his now usual gear, red scarf covering his mouth and nose while the Iron Great sword rested easily on his back. A quick look at his inventory confirmed Naruto's knowledge that everything was where it should be before the blond strode out of his Inn room quickly going out the front door and onto the cobblestone streets of Inkino Village.

The village itself wasn't a large affair, probably no more than a kilometre square in total but it was quite popular. Mostly because unlike some of the more remote villages on this floor Inkino had every kind of store that Players could possibly need for Questing, a blacksmith, apothecary, mystic and others that Naruto hadn't yet bothered to find out the name of since he hadn't needed them, well at least yet.

The blond easily walked down the main street, ignoring a couple of startled looks he got from a Player or two that seemed to recognise him from the rumours floating around. Well that would die down eventually, or at least Naruto hoped it would, it was actually kind of annoying. Naruto yawned as he turned a corner and arrived at the designated meeting spot, Inkino Village didn't have an amphitheatre or anything quite so grandiose, it was simply a small fountain and a grassed area. A young woman was already sitting by the fountain, a Caster Class Naruto guessed judging by her lack of weapon and armour but that didn't mean she couldn't be just as deadly as anyone else.

The young woman had midnight black hair, some of which was styled into, what was known in the anime and manga community, as a twin tail. While the remainder of her hair seemed to cascade down her back her bangs stopping just above her eyes. The young woman, who Naruto assumed was the soon to be Party Leader Rin, was dressed somewhat provocatively, well okay very provocatively. Thigh black boots along with a rather short skirt, a red shirt with a cross design on the front and a pair of fingerless red gloves. The final piece of her ensemble making Naruto wonder if the girl had picked up the Martial Arts Extra Skill. A strange Skill for a Caster Class Player to get but Naruto could easily see how it would help her if it was true.

The blond himself sat down on the grass before laying back and looking at the sky, they still had thirty minutes after all no point in getting all annoyed at waiting considering how long there was to go. A slight shifting made Naruto turn his head slightly as another person entered the Village square, from the looks of it another Caster Class. Well that was unsurprising at least, Bleak Falls was a Caster Class Dungeon after all. But diversity never hurt anyone besides, this was the first time Naruto had been able to get to a meeting before they left so hopefully he would be able to get into the Party it did say All Classes Welcome after all.

A few more people drifted in and out of the square over the next half an hour but few stayed. Naruto was unsure if it was because they decided not to join the Party, because of him or some other reason the blond didn't really care, or they didn't know about the Party Call Out to start with. The blond would wager on a mix of both from a personal stand point. By the time the half hour was up only seven people, including Naruto himself, remained in the square. From what the blond could see four of them were Caster Class Players including the Party Leader, while another was a Saber type that used two-handed swords like himself, the final Player looked to be a Lancer. The black haired girl from before stood before stretching towards the heavens, Naruto pulled himself off of the grass looked like it was show time.

"Everyone for Bleak Falls please come in!" The black haired girl called out, confirming Naruto's suspicion that she was the Party Leader Rin. The other Players around the fountain crowded in awaiting the words from their maybe Party Leader. Rin looked the assembled group up and down before nodding to herself, the girl seemed extremely confident.

"Okay we're over the limit for the Party so we have to separate the grain from the chaff so to speak." The black haired girl continued with a flick of her hair causing a small nod of agreement from the other Players around her. "Okay Duels it is, but we've got to go about this properly so in the interest of diversity the Lancer is in by default." Rin stated ignoring the grumbling around her.

"What?" She asked honestly confused by the muttering. "There are two Saber Class Players and Four Casters this guy is the odd one out, not only that but I kind of like the Agility Bonus I get as a passive when a Lancer is in the Party." Rin stated getting a round of nods in return, after all that actually made a lot of sense. Caster Class Players didn't normally wear heavy armour or the like since the Strength Requirement was too high so they mainly dodged attacks as such the Passive Bonus granted by having a Lancer Class Player in the Party was a huge boon for any Caster Class Player.

The Lancer himself was a nondescript brown haired man who looked like he knew what he was doing but Naruto wouldn't put any stock in the guys actual ability until he'd the guy fight with his own two eyes. The blond eyed off his fellow two-handed sword user and nodded slightly walking towards the man who's black hair was obscuring his eyes slightly. If Rin wanted a diversified Party for the Passive Bonuses the Classes granted each other then there was no point in having two Saber Class Players since the Passive Bonus didn't stack. That more or less meant that he and the other Saber would be duking it out if what Naruto believed the black haired girl was doing was correct.

The blond haired Saber paid close attention to the next couple of Caster Duels. The Casters were paired up by drawing lots, the two that won their first fight were included into the party before the two losers had a throw down with the winner getting in. Honestly Naruto wasn't overly impressed by the Duels, all he saw was some basic elemental magic and some somewhat rarer non-elemental magic. The Caster Class Players just stood there trading relying on their natural defence to Magic due to a high Mana Stat to see them through to the end, only a small amount of dodging happened and from what Naruto saw it was fairly mediocre dodging at that.

When it came time for the two Saber Class Players to throw down Naruto was glad, because watching other people fight was starting to get very boring by that point. They didn't need to speak and to be honest the blond actually respected the other Saber Class player for that, he kept it all business. The other Player selected the Duel option and Naruto drew his blade stance widening as he got ready for the twenty second countdown to finish.

Blue eyes narrowed taking in his opponents form, his legs weren't bent and his weight was slightly forward while his sword was raise, a charging attack most likely. There was no flare of Prana or an activation word as far as Naruto could tell so he hadn't activated Prana Burst yet. The blond was confident in his strength but there was a chance he no longer possessed the best Strength Stat on this floor. He wasn't an A rank hell he wasn't even a B+ yet, most of his last few levels had been going into Agility and Mana so there was a chance that this guy could be stronger than he was. But if that was true then the blond should be able to outdo his opponent in pure speed and amount of Mana available.

Naruto held his blade before him in an easy stance, both hands on the hilt the point of the Iron Great sword aimed at his opponents throat. A stance that offered a good mix of offence and defence but didn't give an overwhelming advantage to either, a good stance to gauge his opponent. The timer hit zero and both Saber's charged, Naruto knew instantly he was faster but did that mean he was stronger, the black haired Saber's blade lit up with a sky blue light effect. A basic charging skill called **Blitz** it was a useful technique if used correctly, however if one knew the attack well enough then it did have an easily available counter. Naruto's own blade glowed yellow as his stance changed to a purely offensive move, the Great sword came up cross guard in line with Naruto's right ear. The blade raced down in a vicious cut straight down, the weakness to Blitz was actually quite simple. Since the attack focused so much force at the tip of the blade if one were to be struck there during the attack it would drive the blade into the earth instantly.

The glowing yellow blade struck it's blue counterpart with bone crushing force slamming the black haired Saber's sword into the ground with enough force that Naruto was sure it would have popped the man's shoulders out of their sockets if they were not in a virtual world. The blond stepped forward twisting slightly as the second part of his sword skill activated, under normal circumstances the attack Naruto was using, **Rough Divide**,would strike the opponents chest with it's second blow but by adjusting your footing slightly a skilled Player could attack the enemies throat instead for a Critical Hit.

"**Trigger off, Prana Burst.**" No point in taking it easy after all, crush your opponent in a single bow with maximum force that was the essence of Naruto's sword style in the making. The huge sword smashed into the black haired Saber's neck with enough force to send him flying the his own sword falling from his hands, the system Player Protection System kicking back in the second the man hit fifty percent health was the only thing that saved his life. But by keeping a close eye on the man's health Naruto was able to deduce one thing about his opponent, despite the fact he used a two-handed sword like Naruto himself the man was an Endurance build. His health simply went down to slowly for it to be anything else, why he was using a two-handed sword instead of a sword and shield combination Naruto had no idea but the blond was thankful that the black haired Saber wasn't as it would have been harder for him to read the attack in that situation.

The black haired Saber departed with a nod after picking up his blade, from start to finish the man didn't say a word and Naruto still respected him more than anyone else currently on the Party. That being said considering that he thought the Caster Class Players that had fought in those Duels were mediocre at best, the Lancer hadn't fought yet and their Party Leader hadn't either that wasn't exactly a hard thing.

"Okay now that that's over we can move on." Rin stated, immediately moving onto the business at hand without taking her time. Which got the young woman points in Naruto's book, people who dragged out conversations for too long while dancing around the topic at hand were both boring and annoying after all.

"The Bleak Falls is around an hour away by foot, on a small plain just outside the forested region to the west." Rin stated her voice clinical as the black haired girl relayed the information about the Dungeon they would be running. "When we arrive an Event will be Triggered, a pair of coffins will be in the middle of having dirt put on top of them and we'll walk right into that." Rin stated before drawing in a deep breath.

"When the NPC's around the coffins notice us the event will start, a Priest will come to the forefront and tell us to leave as the town is under attack by Trolls. Once we agree to defend the town a timer will start counting down from sixty minutes that's how long we have to put blockades up and set traps because once that timer runs out the Trolls will attack the village. There numbers range from anywhere from thirty five to fifty, I've never seen or heard of any more than that so putting up the blockades correctly along with setting up traps is the make or break for this Dungeon if you don't want to die." The black haired girl continued a serious look on her face while getting grim nods from the Party members around her.

"Once half the Trolls are defeated a the Boss of the Dungeon listed as an Ogre type enemy, not that it looks much like one, called The Devourer will appear and rampage through the town smashing down a couple of blockades and letting more Trolls in as it attacks us directly. The NPC's will be in the Church we need two Caster Classes inside to activate a barrier and kill the Trolls that will sneak inside, once they're done they provide some heavy support from the roof. Keep in mind the barrier will only stop the Trolls and The Devourer, if they throw things at you from outside they can still hit and do damage so keep that in mind. Once all that happens all that's left is to kill all the remaining Trolls and The Devourer after that we can call it a day." Rin stated nodding to herself, "Any questions?" She asked getting a round of shaken heads the black haired girl checked her in game clock.

"Okay we meet back here in half an hour stock up on anything you think you'll need and buy extra, preparation is the key here." Rin stated getting a round of yeses in return as the other Players filed off to do some last minute prep work. Naruto just laid back down on the grass, he already had all his stuff no last minute perches left to make. While trap making wasn't something Naruto really knew how to do he did have a few pre bought ones on hand at all times, just in case.

"Oh, you don't need anything?" Rin asked from her position near the fountain, voice completely polite. Naruto didn't even bother sitting up from his prone position to answer, nice to know she was concerned for the job and all but they weren't friends or anything so some of the courtesy that would normally be extended to people like Argo and Kirito could be discarded here.

"All good, I came prepared. Don't lump me in with those others that are coming along." Naruto responded his voice professional. While the blond couldn't see it, Rin just shrugged her shoulders. Wasn't her problem if he got killed after all.

"Okay then suit yourself." The black haired Caster Class Player responded her fingers dancing over a menu that Naruto couldn't see. The blond imagined that she was amusing herself somehow, checking her equipment over, double checking new spells, honestly he didn't know and didn't care so long as this Quest got done Naruto really didn't care either way what the others did.

The ding of a system window opening drew the blonds attention, Naruto threw a quick look at the message.

_Rin Invites you to a Party_

_Accept?_

_Yes/No_

With a shrug Naruto hit the yes button and settled back in to wait, thankfully no one actually took the full thirty minutes to get back. Most taking only ten and one more taking fifteen, as soon as Rin had added them to the party the group had set out. Naruto hadn't bothered learning anyone else's name, they were all not his problem. They were not his friends and he wouldn't die until he met them all again, everything and everyone else was inconsequential, his current Party included. They were a tool that would be used to help him gain a better weapon in order to keep him alive longer and meet his friends once more, Naruto swore he would accomplish that no matter what.

As Rin had stated the town called Bleak Falls was around one hour away on foot, just on the edge of a huge forest region. The town itself didn't look like anything to impressive, mostly small one level ramshackle buildings and a single large church. A few farms were on the outskirts of the village but they looked like they had been under hard times for a while now. Just as Rin had stated on the outskirts of the town as they approached was what seemed to be most of the village burying two of their own if the pair of coffins was anything to go by.

As the group got closer the NPC villagers began to look up at them and whisper, Naruto didn't paid them any mind. All they needed to do now was wait for the Priest to come and they could start, and when they were finished Naruto would be one step closer to his goal when that happened the rest of this Party could go to hell for all he cared. An older man stepped forward, his clothing was black a long robe that looked reminiscent of the Cassock that Catholic Priest would wear in the real world but not so close that anyone would be offended.

"Greetings travellers," The Priest stated in a sad tone, Naruto had to give props to whoever the voice actor was they were pretty good. "I am sorry you had to arrive on such a sad day in our village's time but I must ask you to leave, you would only add to the body count if you were to stay." He said sadly prompting Rin to speak up and continue the event.

"What is the problem?" The red clad Caster Class Player asked her tone business like and professional yet something else Naruto could add to the list of actually liking about the girl. The Priest closed his eyes in sorrow before opening them once more looking like a great burden had just been placed on his shoulders.

"Trolls!" He spat out in a heated voice, before turning melancholy once more. "For weeks now our village has been under siege by Trolls, just yesterday they killed two of our number poor Ted and Hols. While Ted's wife who tried to rescue him was raped before the Trolls carried her off." Most people would have been situated on the fact that someone, even if it was an NPC, had been raped. Naruto's mind however went elsewhere, namely the blond quickly reviewed the current information that he had before deciding that the raped and kidnapped women probably had nothing to do with the main Quest. That being said, getting her back and maybe other women like her would most likely be at the core of the Death to the Unclean Quest that could be accessed after Bleak Falls had been completed.

Since the Quest would most likely deal with things like rape and sex slaves it wasn't hard to imagine why even Argo had refused to talk too much about it. Simply telling him that it was one of the most disturbing Quests in Heavens Feel and advising Naruto, free of charge, to not take the Quest if he was squeamish or large amounts of gore, blood and other nasties unsettled him at all. Considering what the Priest had just said that was starting to sound like good advice to Naruto, very good advice. Still not enough to stop him from actually doing the Quest through, some of that defensive gear sounded sweet and the blond was not about to let anything that could keep him alive long enough to meet his friends once more not be used, no matter how disturbing the Quest to obtain it was.

"I see," Rin responded voice still completely professional and partially detached as if not wanting to get involved in what was happening on an emotional level, probably a smart thing. "Well then if you're having that much trouble with those Trolls we can't just leave it at that." The black haired Caster declared after a second, her tone not changing in the slightest.

"We'll exterminate this Troll problem for you!" Rin finished her voice still cold, still calculated and utterly merciless. Naruto looked up to the sky blond hair waving slightly in the wind, he had a bad feeling about this and when Namikaze Naruto had a bad feeling he prepared appropriately.

It had taken another hour for Rin to finish all the dialogue option and get the all of the defence supplies, it wasn't really that much mostly just a few buckets of oil that if used correctly could set a lot dumb Trolls on fire. Something that Naruto was actually quite anxious to see, he was certain it would be a sight if nothing else.

The blond himself was partnered with Rin in defence of the main square before the Church, they were meant to buy time for the other two Caster Class Players inside to activate the defence. While the Lancer Class Player and one other Caster would be running interference around the village when the time came, the sixty minute timer hit zero and nothing happened. Naruto turned to the black haired Caster who looked just as confused as he was.

"Has this ever happen before?" The blond asked honestly confused causing Rin to shake her head looking just as lost.

"No, I'll send out a message for everyone to relax a little until they hear the horn but stay on guard, no knowing when the Trolls will turn up." She stated causing Naruto to nod in response as he started to put down another couple of traps he hadn't had time to put up before. Hours trickled by and still there were no Trolls honestly Naruto was starting to think that maybe there was a bug in the system and he'd missed the window to complete Bleak Falls. Still the blond waited his black haired companion seemingly growing more and more angered as time trickled on, Naruto was not much better in all honesty. The blond liked to think that he was hiding it better but that was most definitely a lie, Rin was just standing there tapping her foot while Naruto himself was pacing up and down in an annoyed manner.

The blond looked up and spied the storm clouds on the horizon thunder and lightning flaring in the blackness. The light began to fade Naruto stood up and stretch towards the heavens, his bad feeling was getting worse his right hand reached up and pulled the Iron Great sword free the blond checking its edge. As the light almost fully faded Naruto looked over to Rin who was now sitting down but tapping her foot in impatience all the same.

"I would suggest you get ready to fight." The blond stated in a completely professional tone making the black haired Caster look up at him in surprise.

"Really why?" Rin asked sounding weary. "It's probably a bug in the system chances are we won't even get to do the Quest anymore." Naruto just looked back to the storm clouds that were almost overhead.

"Because unless I miss my guess," he stated looking up with a sigh as the clouds completely covered the sky over the village, thunder and lightning ringing in his ears. "We're in for one wild night." The blond finished as a horn rang out over the village signalling that the Trolls would be there in less than ten minutes, Naruto sighed and looked to the sky once more.

Sometimes it really sucked to be right all the time.

**Heavens Feel Chapter Two End**


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